A Is For Alibi and....

A is for Alibi or Antique Armor 

Agatha Christie was very good at sorting through the alibis of the suspects in her murder mysteries. Was it the Antique Armor's curse or Alice DuPont's poisoned muffins…Agatha could ferret it all out.

What constitutes an alibi? According to the Oxford English Dictionary; a claim or piece of evidence that one was elsewhere when an alleged act took place.  In our case, of course, that act would be a crime, and in modern mystery usually a murder.  An Excuse is also defined as an alibi, but not really in my view. An excuse means I can't because… An alibi means I couldn't have and offers proof or at least purported evidence to substantiate that claim of innocence.

It is up to the sleuth, the detective to track down the truth of each of the suspect's alibis. For lack of an eye witness to corroborate a suspect's  whereabouts, to confirm or refute his alibi, other methods of proving or disproving the suspect's alibi include verifying mileage, place and time last seen, possible motive, opportunity and access to the method, be that gun, knife, poison. Whatever constitutes solid evidence or proof. It isn't always easy, in fact, it seldom is, but a good detective, even an amateur sleuth will use every avenue possible to insure the guilty party is punished, not some innocent fall guy.