"The Scene Was Lighted by the Electric-Blue Brilliance of a Flash Pistol"

"Pardon My Mistake."
By Fletcher Pratt (1897-1956).
First appearance: Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1946.
Reprints info (HERE).
Short short short story (3 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).

"Out in the space lanes he would have the only flash pistol aboard, and the booster bomb that would convert the ship's whole supply of atomic fuel to energy in one terrific explosion, like the inside of a star."

Perfect crimes require perfect execution—unfortunately for him, this would-be murderer isn't quite up to the task . . .

Resources:
- Fletcher Pratt was quite the polymath, with wide-ranging interests and enthusiasms, as Wikipedia attests (HERE); we've also spent some time with those various interests and enthusiams (HERE) and (HERE).

The bottom line: "He remembered a conversation he'd once had with a Chief Constable some years back, when he asked the Chief if in his experience he believed there was such a thing as the 'perfect murder.' The Chief had replied that there was. 'It's the one we never hear about,' he said." ― Not Dead Yet
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