Familiar with the process of visiting a person, detained in jail, it was easy for Charmaine to schedule a visit with Shonda Williams' brother, Broderick.
According to the jail's protocols and visitation guidelines, most detainees were kept away from known enemies.
In the general population, and also when they came to visit with their family.
For the system to work, and safeguard a person's safety, administrators had to know a preexisting animosity.
No one outside of special agent Anthony Price had knowledge of any connection that Broderick Williams may have had with Kenny Mathis.
Aside from Swaylo and Charmaine, Broderick Williams may have been the only other person that wanted to touch Kirkwood Kenny.
With the label of a snitch hanging over his head, the facility kept him isolated from the general population.
His only interaction with other guys in the jail came through visitation.
He presented the only loose end that could send Swaylo to prison...
And Charmaine was out to prevent that from happening.
Even if she had to help orchestrate the play, she was willing to do it.
It was almost a month after Swaylo had been released on bond when Broderick Williams walked into the visitation area and saw Charmaine seated beyond the fiberglass partition.
He could remember the many times that he had made a pass at his sister's friend...
But seeing her there, under the circumstances that he was facing, did not arouse any emotions other than gratitude.
Dressed in a cute pink and white tennis skirt, with her hair in an Asian wrap, Charmaine was looking delectable in her outfit.
She carried herself with confidence.
A woman is certain of what she wanted from a male companion, her career, and her life.
Charmaine did not appear to be the type to settle for less than what she wanted.
With lip gloss glistening from her lips like succulent slices of a strawberry, Charmaine reminded him of his sister, and how Kirkwood Kenny had murdered her.
Her beauty was lost amidst the clutch of grief that overcame him when he saw her.
He took a seat across from her and picked up the phone receiver that allowed them to speak between the fiberglass partition.
"What's up, stranger... Didn't expect to see you here." he greeted, fighting to control his emotions.
Charmaine gave a somber nod of understanding.
"Yeah. I know what you mean," she stated, her eyes devoid of mirth or amusement. "That's why I came to see you..."
A puzzled expression came across his face.
"You know, Shonda was like a sister from a different mother to me... So I feel a certain type of way about how ol' boy played the game."
"For sho'," Broderick agreed."The dude did her dirty. She didn't deserve that shit."
Charmaine gave a nod of agreement.
"She put that clown in on the move, and he betrayed her!" Broderick lamented, tears of fury making his eyes blurry.
"What if I told you that there was a way for you to touch that snitch? Would you deal with the problem?"
Broderick locked eyes with Charmaine, and he could comprehend what she was insinuating.
"What's understood needs no explanation," he replied.
"If that opportunity were to ever be presented to me, it would be a pleasure to slump that sucker," he added, certain that she had not come to visit, just for the sake of trying to check on his well-being.
She was there to convey a message.
Removing a written letter from her pocket, Charmaine confided to him a plan to have someone visit Kirkwood Kenny at the same time that she came to visit him.
Broderick read the letter in silence.
When he was done, his gaze surveyed the area around him again.
Once inmate detainees were summoned to the visitation area, they were released from whatever housing unit that they may have been living in.
A jailer checks off their name from an appointment approval list, then they are allowed to visit with their family.
Seated within one of the twenty pods, used to hold the prisoners in a stationary location, there was ample opportunity for a person to bring harm to another detainee.
The pods were designed in such a way that prisoners had access to each other, with a single guard present in an adjoining corridor.
When guys entered the area, it was difficult for them to see the face of any of the other prisoners as they faced their families.
That blind spot, meant to provide some semblance of privacy, was what would allow Broderick Williams an opportunity to touch Kirkwood Kenny.
"If you pull that off, then it's curtains for that coward," he vowed, his eyes intense with the prospect of being able to avenge his sister's murder.
Charmaine gave him a smile of assurance.
"I'll be to see you tomorrow. Be ready."
When Broderick Williams watched Charmaine walked away, he had no illusions about why she was willing to help him.
It didn't matter, he decided...
Kenny Mathis had it coming.
And Broderick planned to give him the punishment that he felt Kenny Mathis needed, so he did not give a damn about WHY Charmaine was willing to help him do it.
All he could think about was Pluto's voice in his head when they were forced to fight as kids.
"Broderick, help me..."
The following afternoon he met Charmaine in the visitation area, with a homemade ice pick concealed at his waist.
They sat to the right of the corridor, in the last pod by the wall.
The next four pods, along his left, were occupied with other visitors.
No one had a reason to venture that far-right.
"How are you?" Charmaine asked, with genuine concern.
Broderick was so absorbed in his thoughts that he could only give a nod of assurance.
There was no way to express how he was feeling.
The thought of being able to touch Kenny Mathis had been on his mind all night.
He extracted his weapon from his waist and glanced along the line of visitors.
The metallic click of a door being opened sounded.
Broderick took a surreptitious glance at the person entering the visitation area.
The tense expression and sudden attempt to hide behind the partition that separated the detainees let Charmaine know that he had spotted his target.
He was focused like a cat, prepared to pounce on some unsuspecting prey.
A chill of expectation came over her.
The idea of witnessing a murder still felt too surreal to believe possible...
But she was anxious to see the look in Kenny Mathis' eyes when he saw Broderick standing before him.
"I feel like it's prom night, and I'm waiting to hit the dance floor with my date," Broderick stated as Kirkwood Kenny veered to where his visitor was seated.
"This is definitely going to be a day to remember. You can bank on that..." he promised, rising from his seat.
When Kirkwood Kenny entered the visitation area, his gaze swept over the corridor.
He had the look of a man accustomed to dealing with confrontations with adversaries.
A few guys turned to take a look at him, but no one registered in his mind as an enemy.
An exotic-looking female, with an almond-colored complexion, tapped the glass to get his attention.
Kirkwood Kenny turned to her with a smile.
She had the look of a woman who shared the linage of African and Asian parents.
Intrigued by her beauty, he followed his instinct to procreate.
The concept of danger ceased to exist at that moment.
"What's up, Cutie... Do I know you?"
"Not yet. But I was thinking about trying to change that."
She bats her eyes with the flirtatious smile of a seductress.
Dressed in a black leather catsuit, with a matching black Kango hat, and jewelry the woman made it hard to tear his gaze away from her.
She was gorgeous.
"My name is Angel Black," she added as his gaze took in the swell of her breast. "I was checking out your case, and I was intrigued by that shit. You're a real bad boy, Popi..."
Kenny smiled with an indulgent swell of his chest.
Women loved to date a hoodlum, he thought.
"I'm whatever you need me to be, babe. I'm here to please," he replied, fully absorbed in the conversation.
"I would be a lot more careful about saying stuff like that, if I were you, Popi."
"What do mean by that, babe?"
"I'm just saying," she stated with a vague shrug of indifference.
"Some people might prefer to see you ten toes up."
Beyond where she sat, Kenny saw Charmaine step into view.
Her eyes were on him as she made the gesture of a person having their throat cut.
Before he could utter another word, he felt the presence of someone standing near him.
When he turned, to glance over his shoulder, Broderick Williams was glaring down at him.
The full impact of his predicament registered in his mind like ice water splashed on someone asleep in an isolated apartment.
Before having gone to sleep the apartment was empty.
Broderick took advantage of the ambush and went berserk.
He began stabbing Kenny as if his hand were a jackhammer, breaking up concrete.
With a wild cry of desperation, Kenny tried to grab ahold of his hand, but Broderick was too strong.
He had him pent into the small space of the pod, striking every open area about his head, neck, and chest.
"Officer!" he cried. "Somebody help me..."
The battle between death and desperation is filled with grunts, pants, and pleas for mercy.
When the components of rage and hatred are combined with grief and insanity, a person becomes powerless to control the explosion of emotions that overcomes them.
By the time the guards had come to respond to the altercation, Kirkwood Kenny had ceased to resist...
Blood was smeared everywhere.
Broderick had him pent against the glass, stabbing him.
Charmaine exited the jail with her friend Angel close behind her.
Neither of them exhibiting any sign of familiarity.