Stuck On You by Christine Wenger Read Free Book Online

had more positive things to say about Mack than his own father. How sad.
    Now she knew why Mack had asked if he could visit his parents. But it looked as if he was too late. Dad had already made up his mind about his son's arrest.
    Skimming the article, she saw that she was mentioned as being the owner-operator of Your Home is Your Jail and how this program could potentially save the taxpayers thousands of dollars in incarceration costs.
    Perfect. Just what she’d wanted. Mack being on her program was already generating good publicity. But instead of being thrilled, there was this hollow feeling inside. She didn't want to make money off his misfortune, guilty or not.
    Kate folded the paper and drove to her office/apartment on Tulip Street. She parked and walked around the back of Clancy Brothers Pizza Palace and Groceries. As she climbed the stairs with her equipment in hand, Kate took a deep breath of the garlic that wafted from the establishment. Those Clancys made a great pizza.
    She deposited her equipment on the floor by the door and turned on her computer. Before she did another thing, she had to program Mack's name, address, account number, and phone number into the VV-98. It would have already been done on the laptop if there had been a battery pack in the thing. Funny, she could have sworn she took care of that. She didn't like the idea of a lapse in time when Mack wasn't connected.
    While waiting for the VV-98 to boot up, she picked up her mail from the floor by the door, poured herself a glass of lemonade from the refrigerator in the small kitchenette and glanced at the mail.
    Bills. And more bills.
    She reminded herself that she needed the security and the stability that would certainly come if her program succeeded.
    And it all depended on Mack.
    The computer beeped. Kate shook away her money problems and began typing in the necessary data on John Mackowitz. Ten minutes later, she was finished and decided to test it. She hit the combination of keys and received the message back that there was no connection found.
    Puzzled, she went over the steps in her head. Without a doubt, she had connected everything perfectly.
    Kate checked the data she had just entered, but knew she hadn't made any mistakes.
    The answer was obvious.
    Mack had left his house!
    #
    The second Kate pulled out of his driveway, Mack fired up the rust bucket and drove the back roads to the Rose County Sheriff's Department. Parking where no one would notice his car, he jogged to the basement door of the station. The damn ankle monitor felt like a lead weight around his ankle, although it actually weighed nothing at all. It was just the thought of it.
    He didn't dare cut this one off and endure the wrath of Kate. Besides, he already owed her for one. If things went off as he planned, he'd make it back home before Kate noticed he’d split. He already had an excuse prepared.
     Hunkering down in the bushes, he picked the lock of the side door and entered.
    The basement of the cop shop was like a huge rummage sale. Unclaimed bicycles were stored here, as were stereo equipment, lawn mowers, boom boxes, and jewelry. All were recorded, lettered and numbered and placed in lockers of various shapes and sizes.
    Clothes and money that prisoners were arrested with were boxed and sent to the basement. His uniform, badge and gun were probably somewhere here, but as far as Mack was concerned, it all could stay behind the floor-to-ceiling, thick, chain link fence that surrounded it all. His interest lay in the computer that was on the gray metal desk outside the gate.
    Mack crept in, not daring to breathe. He knew that Deputy Gilmartin would be taking a smoke break about now. He could set his watch by Gilmartin's nicotine habit, and Mack only had about ten minutes. Tops.
    Sitting down on the metal folding chair, he immediately went to the main menu. That was about all he could find. Computers were not his thing.
    Skimming the lengthy list, he wondered what keys