"The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl" is a short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...

. It was first published in Detective Book Magazine

Detective Book Magazine

Detective Book Magazine was an American pulp magazine that published detective fiction. It was published in 1930 to 1931 and from 1937 to 1952....

in November 1948. The story was also published as "Touch and Go" in EQMM in January 1953.
Mr. Acton begins the story standing over the body of Mr. Huxley, whom he has just killed. While attempting to cover up his tracks, he has flashback

Flashback (narrative)

Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...

s of his encounters with Mr. Huxley, with whom he is having an altercation over a woman.