Mystery Tune, also known as Death Song, is a mystery short story by Isaac Asimov.
Part of the Union Club series, it was first published in the April 1981 issue of Gallery magazine. Later collected in The Union Club Mysteries.
Summary[]
At the Union Club, Griswold recounts a case involving the murder of a man known as "Eighty-eight Jinks," a talented but alcoholic pianist who occasionally ran errands for a local gang. He was found dying from a stab wound in an alley. A police officer, Rodney, reached him just in time. When pressed to identify his killer, Eighty-eight, fearing reprisals against his family, refused to speak a name. Instead, he hummed a brief, unfamiliar sequence of musical notes with his dying breath.
Lieutenant Carmody enlisted Griswold's help, hoping that solving this murder could disrupt the gang's operations. Officer Rodney could not reliably recall or reproduce the tune. Upon learning the names of three prime suspects—Moose Matty, Ace Begad, and Gent Diamond—Griswold had a realization. He deduced that the dying man had spelled out the killer's name using musical notes, where the letters A through G correspond to notes on the scale.
Griswold translated the name "Ace Begad" into its musical equivalent. He played this sequence on a piano for Officer Rodney, who confirmed it matched the tune hummed by Eighty-eight Jinks. This identified Ace Begad as the murderer, leading to his arrest and conviction.
Characters[]
- Griswold
- Club Member (the narrator)
- Baranov
- Jennings
- Eighty-eight Jinks
- Officer Rodney
- The Anonymous Caller
- Ace Begad
- Moose Matty
- Gent Diamond
- Eighty-eight Jinks's family (Sister and her child)