A hard-luck gambler begs Fortune for an alibi, drawing the one-armed detective into a murder case

Once, Sammy Weiss had a shot at the big time. A two-bit gambler who stumbled into a high-stakes craps game, he got lucky at the right time, and was two rolls away from millions when his nerve failed. Rather than shoot for the big money, he walked away with his winnings, taking $160,000 and the bitter knowledge that he could have won it all. Since that money ran out, he has wandered Chelsea playing low-stakes poker and reminiscing about his one moment of near-glory.

When a dispute over a gambling debt owed to him by an uptown blueblood gets violent, Weiss comes to Dan Fortune, the one-armed PI, to beg for an alibi. Fortune says no. The next day the rich man is found stabbed to death, and Weiss has disappeared. Is he the killer or the victim of a frame-up? Either way, Fortune will find his old friend, and justice will be done.