Tracks by Niv Kaplan

her brother for
his recovery and his positive attitude, but secretly she wanted his assailants
punished.  She volunteered her services to the police and became an
informant on gang related matters inside her school.  No one suspected
this fragile looking, soft spoken girl of being a police informant but in fact
her information helped dismantle several juvenile gangs taking refuge and
operating from within the school walls and other schools in the immediate
area.  She had hoped such activity would lead her to the people who
crippled her brother but this never materialized .
    After high school she was
accepted at City University as a history major, intending to focus on Chinese
history, a desire she had ever since she could remember sitting on her mother’s
lap taking in stories from the old country.  At twenty-two she became a
teacher at her old high school, remaining close to her brother who still lived
at home but was now an accomplished jazz guitarist who performed at various
locations around Greenwich Village and local Manhattan jazz clubs .
    At the university, she took a
minor in behavioral sciences, still mystified by the type of human nature which
brought about her family’s misfortune. She still lent part time services to the
police and it was there that she was first introduced to Black Jack’s missing
children bureau. She was asked to assist in locating an eighth grade student
from her school whose mother had reported missing after a full week of not
seeing him. The child, Wayne Gardner, was a known Hardhead who would sometimes
disappear under questionable circumstances, but never for more than a night or
two. The Missing Children bureau was called in after an additional two weeks
went by and the police were still clueless.  Mai-Li was introduced to
Black Jack at the Bowery Police Precinct and was asked to assist in gathering
information.  Old contacts in the area put her on a trail of a score
settled between rival gangs .
    There were three gangs
operating at the time in the Bowery out of the local high school.  Their
activity ranged from dope selling, to car theft, to shoplifting, to general harassment
of the public which included coercing harmless children into performing
dangerous deeds.  Wayne Gardner, who was a hard head but smart enough not
to belong to any of the gangs, managed to keep out of harm’s way until one of
the gangs recruited him to run an errand which happened to be an envelope full
of stolen cash.  Gardner, who thought he was doing a friend a favor,
unaware of the contents of the envelope, was due to deliver the cash to a
member of a rival gang who had been tipping off Gardner’s gang on money
collections at local small stores in the area.  The particular gang member
had been dissatisfied with the share he was getting from his own gang, so he
struck a deal with the rival gang, alerting them on any planned
robberies.  The rival gang would clean out the shop before the member’s
own gang, and send him his share via unrelated personnel .
    Gardner delivered the money
into a trap set by the suspecting members of the betrayed gang.  He met
the gang member, a youth no older than himself, at a narrow alley which turned
into a killing zone.  The young traitor tried to shoot his way out of the
alley but was gunned down along with Gardner who was caught in the
crossfire.  Their bodies were hauled in the trunk of a car to the East River
where they were fastened to pieces of concrete and dumped in the water. 
NYPD divers never found bodies but traces of blood were found at the spot where
the bodies were dumped .
    Mai-Li had tipped off Black
Jack who coerced the story out of a gang member who had been jailed for armed
robbery and was willing to turn State’s evidence.  Three youths were
brought up on murder charges but were never convicted for lack of
evidence.  It was one gang member’s word against another with no
supporting evidence, no bodies, and no weapons. The three walked and the