Kleinsmidt raised the ticket stub, studied it, and said, “The number is six-nine-four-three— What’s that? Yes, there is. Two letters. BZ. Oh, you’re certain? Okay, thanks a lot.”
“I’m afraid,” he said to Endicott, “you’re going to have to revise your time schedule somewhat.”
Endicott tapped the end of a cigarette on a broad thumbnail, shaking the tobacco down. “Sorry,” he said, and then after a second added, “I can’t do it.”
“Those tickets are keyed,” Kleinsmidt told him. “They’ve had so much trouble with kickbacks on tickets, that they decided to tell exactly when the ticket was sold — at what part of the show in other words. So they worked out a time signal system. A is seven o’clock. B is eight o’clock. C nine o’clock, D ten o’clock. And X, Y, Z stands for fifteen-minute periods. For instance, B on a ticket means that it was sold between eight o’clock and eight-fifteen. BX means the ticket was sold between eight-fifteen and eight-thirty. BY means eight-thirty to eight-forty-five, and BZ means eight-forty-five to nine. They have an automatic stamp which is connected with the clock, and the letters are changed automatically.”
“Sorry,” Endicott said. “I still think I was in there before eight-forty-five.”
“All right then, if you were in there before eight-forty-five, you could have got up and walked out.”
A slow smile came over Endicott’s face. “Afraid, Lieutenant, that I can’t oblige you this time. I didn’t realize how lucky I was, but if you’ll check back on the show last night, you’ll find that the feature picture ended about eight-fifty-five, and there was a drawing which took place immediately afterwards. The number of a ticket was called out. I somehow read my number incorrectly and started up to the stage. I saw my mistake. The audience gave me the ha-ha. You can verify that.”
“Oh, yeah?” Lieutenant Kleinsmidt asked.
Endicott’s voice held just the right amount of amused half-contemptuous tolerance. “As you so aptly express it — yeah,” he said.
Kleinsmidt said, “That’s an angle I’ll investigate. I’ll want to talk with you again.”