"Mom, do you even hear what you're saying?"
"There's a patient at the hospital with a severed trachea! If he doesn't get surgery now, he will die!"
My mother stepped back half a pace, hiding behind the security guards, looking at me like I was a stranger.
"Dora, I'm doing this for your own good."
"Stealing is a crime. If you hand it over now, they might go easy on you..."
"I didn't steal anything!"
The scream ripped from my throat so hard my vision blurred. I cursed myself for taking the day off to bring my mother to the mall.
Three layers of onlookers had closed in around us. Some were livestreaming. Some were snapping photos. Others whispered behind their hands.
"I heard she's a doctor?"
"A doctor who steals? Guess you really can't judge a book by its cover..."
"Her own mother reported her. You think she'd lie about that?"
Captain Paulson raised his walkie-talkie. "Jewelry store, can you confirm what's missing?"
"Three gold necklaces, fifty grams total. Worth about eighty thousand dollars."
"Copy that."
He lowered the walkie-talkie and turned to me, his tone leaving no room for argument.