It depends on the game right. I’m pretty sure in the game I was using for the original example, you’re just allowed to kill off NPC’s if another NPC is motivated to kill them. That doesn’t necessarily get to the point of whether it’s satisfying or not. Which to me is a bit of an open question.
If it’s never satisfying, then in Apocalypse World terms, the first tick of the clock is always to announce future badness? I can see that being a good general practice.
But assuming there is no clock and the assassin is there, even if unknown. So the general circumstances are established. Then I’m thinking, is the assassin really going to kill her? And it just looks like, based on the state of the fiction, he is. Then I think that’s legitimate.
Although I have MC’d Apocalypse World a few times and in one session I failed to telegraphed something that I really should have in hindsight. So I err on the side of telegraphing rather than not but it does depend on the fictional situation.