“Sounds like Watts is a real model citizen,” Rylann said humorlessly. No matter how many times she heard stories like this, they still got to her. And if the day ever came when that stopped happening, it would be time to hang up her briefcase.

“He’s a model inmate, too,” Cameron said, just as dryly. “Apparently, he has a reputation of being very violent at MCC. Because of that, he’d been in a cell by himself for three months before Brown was transferred in with him.”

She rested her arms on the desk, continuing. “Here’s how this ended up on my desk. The FBI has a man, Agent Griegs, who’s been working undercover as an inmate at MCC in an unrelated investigation. During this time, he’s been passing along any information related to the goings-on at the prison that he believes the FBI might want to know about. After Brown was killed by Watts, the undercover agent told his contact that the attack seemed suspicious. Another agent, Special Agent Wilkins, was subsequently brought in to take charge of the investigation.

“What immediately jumped out at Agent Wilkins was the timing of Brown’s death. Brown, who is African American, had been moved into Watts’s cell just two days prior to the attack—a transfer that had been arranged by a prison guard named Adam Quinn. Naturally, Agent Wilkins interviewed Quinn, and that’s where things got really interesting.

“During the interview, Quinn became nervous and agitated when asked why Brown had been transferred to Watts’s cell. The prison guard claimed that he’d set up the transfer because, per policy, inmates weren’t supposed to get cells to themselves. But Quinn was unable to offer any reason why—when the prison had previously allowed Watts to be in a cell by himself for three months—he suddenly decided to follow this alleged policy. Nor did Quinn have an explanation as to why he’d chosen Brown to be Watts’s cell mate.”

“Which is suspicious in and of itself given Watts’s history of racially motivated violence.” Rylann paused, her mind already working through the fact pattern. “Did Agent Wilkins confirm whether there is a policy that inmates can’t be in cells by themselves?”

“The warden said that while that is the general rule, they have made exceptions in the past for inmates like Watts who are particularly aggressive.” Cameron proceeded on. “Not surprisingly, Agent Wilkins decided to dig a little deeper. In reviewing Brown’s prison records, he found something very unusual. As it turns out, Quinn, the guard, had been attacked by Brown two weeks before Brown was killed.”

Rylann’s prosecutorial radar went on high alert. “What were the circumstances of that attack?”

“Apparently, Brown grabbed Quinn’s forearm when he was collecting Brown’s food tray and pulled it hard enough to dislocate the guard’s wrist.”

Rylann sat back in her chair. “Let me summarize to make sure I have this all straight. Brown attacks a prison guard and dislocates the guard’s wrist. Two weeks later, Brown is transferred by that guard into the cell of one of the most violent inmates in the prison, a white supremacist no less, and is beaten to death.” She looked at Cameron across the desk. “I assume we’re thinking the same thing here: that Quinn engineered this attack in retaliation.”

“That’s exactly what Agent Wilkins suspected, so he kept digging,” Cameron said. “Not surprisingly, Brown had been put in disciplinary segregation for a week after he attacked Quinn. When he came out, he told some of his inmate friends that the guard came to his cell one night and threatened him.”

Rylann cocked her head. “What was the threat?”

“Brown claimed that Quinn said, ‘You’re gonna pay for what you did to my wrist, you piece of shit.’ “

“Do we know if anyone heard that threat?” Rylann asked.

“We don’t know yet. But I’ll circle back to that in a minute,” Cameron said. “After that, Agent Wilkins took a look at Quinn’s personnel files and discovered that in the last year, the prison guard had been involved in two other altercations with inmates. And on both of those occasions, shortly thereafter the inmate was attacked and beaten by another prisoner.”

She gave Rylann a moment to process this.

“So we’ve got a prison guard who doesn’t like it when inmates step out of line,” Rylann said. “But instead of getting his own hands dirty to retaliate, he uses other inmates to do the job for him. This time, however, he got carried away, picked the wrong inmate, and a man ended up dead.”

“Thankfully, the undercover agent tipped us off. Otherwise, this might have gone unnoticed, just a fight between two inmates gone wrong.” There was a gleam in Cameron’s eye. “Which brings me back to your question—whether anyone heard Quinn threaten Brown.”

Rylann had a feeling she knew what that look meant. “I’m guessing we have a witness.”

“We may have a witness,” Cameron said. “The FBI has identified an inmate who was also in disciplinary segregation on the night Brown claimed Quinn threatened him. In the cell right next to Brown, as a matter of fact. Unfortunately, we don’t yet know what, if anything, this other inmate actually heard.”

“Why not?” Rylann asked. “Is he refusing to talk?”

“For starters, this inmate isn’t actually an inmate anymore. He was released from MCC just before Brown was killed. It’s likely he doesn’t even know that Brown is dead.”