“Today’s top story, Chicago—who has the real diary written by murder victim Annie Guzzo on the night she died? V. I. Warshawski or Stella Guzzo? They call Warshawski Chicago’s premier investigator for a reason: she’s thorough, she’s good and she’s lucky. When she almost lost her life to save Blackhawks star Pierre Fouchard’s daughter, the news galvanized an anonymous citizen into mailing her pages from the diary of a long-dead Chicago girl, Annie Guzzo.”
It was a great story, and Murray made the most of it. While he narrated, the production team ran footage from South Chicago, from Pierre’s and Boom-Boom’s days with the Hawks, from Wrigley Field where Annie had hidden her diary.
“You can see a copy of the diary Warshawski received in the mail on our website: globalentertainmentnews/Annie-Guzzo-Diary. No one knows how the handwriting or content compares to the diary Annie’s mother, Stella, claims to have found, because no one, not even our lawyers, has been allowed to view that version.”
I went to the website. Sure enough, the pages of Annie’s diary that I’d given Murray were posted there, the sprawling schoolgirl handwriting difficult enough to read that Murray had put a typed transcript underneath.
September 10
Ma is out of control. Mr. M, ditto, Frank and Betty are so depressing, nothing but babies and diapers and looking down their nose at anyone who thinks there’s a life outside St. Eloy’s. Joel looks at me like a sheep that wants to break through the fence and nibble on me but is too scared to. Oh, I can’t wait to be FREE, FREE, FREE.
September 14
All Frank can talk about is stupid fucking baseball. There, I said it, at least in here. Can’t wait to get away. Bryn Mawr, that’s where I want to be, pictures are SOOO gorgeous. Ma thinks Frank walks on water, all she talks about is how he’ll be with the Cubs and then I’ll see how stupid my college dreams are. She doesn’t hit Frank anymore. She broke my front tooth yesterday, dental bill is HUGE. Have to work more overtime.
Boom-Boom is getting Frank in shape for tryouts. Says Frank has good hand-eye coordination but out of practice. Frank loves B-B, Frank hates B-B.
September 18
Going to Wrigley for Frank’s tryout. Frank said, no Boom-Boom, he doesn’t want the Star to take the shine away from him, but B-B wants to watch. Told B-B I wanted to come along.
September 24
Boom-Boom so angry with me for running off, he didn’t watch Frank fuck up on the field (my good deed for my brother, kept the Star from seeing him “whiff the curve”). Ma hit me again, mad at me because Frank lost his chance. Didn’t even feel it. Now all the papers showing what Mr. M and Rory Scanlon are really doing with the foundation money are safe, inside a kind of tunnel, wrapped inside insulating tape around some big pipe. Cubs photographer, maintenance guys, they were cool, they saw it as a big joke I was playing on the hockey star, they helped me out.
October 13
Mr. Warshawski says criminals feel an urge to share their cleverness, that’s how the police catch a lot of people. Now I know what he means, I’m aching to tell someone else, about the papers, and how I hid them, but who can I trust?
October 27
Mr. M tries to wheedle the papers out of me. Says I have a BIG Christmas bonus coming. I said I thought Jews didn’t celebrate Christmas. He said it’s a secular society, I’ll realize when I get out of the St. Eloy’s orbit.
December 20
Joel helped me with my college applications. Spike and the other guys make fun of him. If only he didn’t SWEAT so much I’d let him kiss me, he’s so sweet and vulnerable in a puppy kind of way.
He helped me write a piece of music to use in my college applications. I played it on Mrs. Warshawski’s piano; Mr. W said it sounded like Verdi, and that he was sure his wife was listening in heaven and loving it. I loved Mrs. W, I wish he hadn’t said that, if she’s listening in heaven she knows I didn’t do most of the work myself. Fail on your own merits, that was always her advice to me. Work hard and fail on your own merits, don’t succeed on someone else’s. Now—I’m disobeying her. Feels 1000 x worse than disobeying Ma. Who hit me AGAIN for bragging about the music. Maybe that evens it all out.
January 21
Joel was working late tonight, accused me of having sex with Mr. M, with Boom-Boom, said he thought I was too precious a person (can you believe that? Precious a person?) to sell myself even for college. Finally told him I found these financial papers about what Mr. M and Mr. S are doing with the client accounts. Told him I hid them in Wrigley Field and they can’t touch me. I’m free.
April 13
Learned today that Bryn Mawr accepted me. Told Ma and everyone at school, full scholarship, but they only gave me half of what I need. I’ll still have to work, but even with that, it’s SO expensive—need Mr. M’s support. I AM GOING TO PHILADELPHIA IN AUGUST & NO ONE CAN STOP ME!!!!