The Singing Bell

Murder (the first) on the Moon happens because of super-valuable treasures—singing bell-tongues—hollow pebble-like spheres of pumice inside which tiny fragments roll, producing a delightful sound.

The murderer counts on the fact that nobody will be able to prove he was on the Moon, since the person there wears a spacesuit and the Moon’s outside influence does not reach his body. But the extraterrologist Ert managed to fool the killer…

Louis Peyton had never told anyone about the methods by which he had managed to outwit the police on Earth in countless clever duels, when it sometimes seemed his psyche would be put under investigation any moment—yet every time he came out victorious.
He wasn’t foolish enough to reveal his cards. But sometimes, savoring his latest feat, he returned to a long-nurtured dream: to leave behind a will that would be opened only after his death, in which he would show the whole world that his natural talent—not luck—had ensured his unchanging success.
In his will he would write: \“A false pattern, created to mask a crime, always carries traces of the personality of the one who creates it. So it is wiser to establish a pattern in the natural course of events and adapt one’s actions to it.\”…