Read "Knock Three-One-Two" by Fredric Brown online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Ray Fleck looked at his watch again and saw that it was just time for him to leave. He'd sat there nursing his drink ever since the psycho had left -- thinking. There couldn't be any possible slip-ups on his alibi and he'd thought it out and covered every contingency.
The all-night poker game at Harry Brambaugh's was, of course, the basis of it. But he'd worked things out so that game would alibi him for all night no matter what happened. Someone in the game might or might not buy the diamond ring to let him play. And if someone did buy it, he might still go broke within the first hour, and that would be no good at all. His alibi had to be for _all_ night, clear up to dawn.