Earth Angel Read Free Page B

away, though not with any finesse.
    He had thrown her so completely, she’d gone into the bar exam with him looming in her mind, breaking her concentration. She’d had the worst score recorded in twenty years of testing. Her fiancé had called off the wedding, not wanting to be a “kept man,” even until the next test. The man had been obnoxiously noble.
    Miles had ruined her nice, neatly planned life. She hadn’t bothered to try to pass the bar again, but had accepted her grandfather’s offer to work in the research and development department at Wagner Oil. A year ago she’d been granted a seat on the board of directors. And that had been when she really began taking charge of her life again. At last she had a cause worth fighting for. If only she could find that damn codicil.
    She wished she’d never said a word about it to Miles. She had a pretty good idea that if he found it, it would stay hidden.
    She shook off the distressing thought. If her family wouldn’t honor the codicil on their own, she’d just have to help them along. Tonight was the first in a series of missions to do just that.
    And she’d better get started before she chickened out.
    Finally satisfied that no guards were checking this area of the Wagner Oil refinery plant, she crept out of her hiding place, keeping to the dark shadows as much as possible. There weren’t many. Floodlights illuminated nearly every cranny of the plant inside the fence and at least two hundred feet on the outside. Cars zoomed noisily above her on the Route 95 freeway. Even at five in the morning, the road sounded busy. She just hoped nobody noticed her for the next few minutes.
    Taking a last deep breath and clutching one sheet to her, she raced across the open lighted space to the eight-foot-high fence. The barbed wire surrounding the top was not a deterrent. It was a help. She clambered up the fence as best she could and hooked one end of the sheet to the barbs, then leaped down and climbed up to hook the other end. The sheet unfurled in all its glory.
    She raced back to her hiding spot and grabbed another sheet. After checking the grounds again, she repeated the process until there were four sheets lined up on the fence, their declarations visible to every car on the freeway.
    Catherine breathed a sigh of relief when she reached her car and slipped inside. She started the little Sunbird and took off. When she was safe on one of the back streets of South Philadelphia, she grinned.
    Earth Angel had struck. And right on time for rush hour.

Two
    “Dammit! Who the hell is this Earth Angel?”
    Byrne Wagner pounded his meaty hands on the wood table in Wagner Corporation’s conference room to emphasize his question. Miles winced at the heavy blows, surprised Byrne hadn’t marred the finish.
    Catherine, who was seated across the table from Miles, shrugged. “Who knows? The press is clamoring for an answer to those signs, Uncle Byrne. Ted Koppel’s called twice.”
    Out of all the Wagner directors called in for the emergency meeting, Miles thought, only she was calm. The rest were red faced with anger and nearly sweating with anxiety.
    Byrne’s face turned even darker. “We’re not answering the press on a nut who hangs a bunch of bedsheets on our refinery plant’s fence!”
    Catherine smiled sweetly. “Can I quote you on that when I tell them ‘No comment’?”
    “You won’t say a damn word, girl!”
    Her smile never faltered. “I suggest somebodysay something. Otherwise we’ll be accused of stonewalling in every major city newspaper.”
    “Catherine’s right,” Miles said. She stared at him, her eyes wide. He grinned, enjoying her astonishment at his agreeing with her. “That sign was pretty specific in its accusation,” he went on, looking around the conference table. “The swifter and smoother our response, the less credence we’ll give to the Earth Angel, whoever the nut actually is.”
    His gaze returned to Catherine. He admired her cool