This Week on Mystery Theatre:An Escalating Puzzle for a Way-Out Mystery

The electric sign reading Way Out glowed before the ascending treads of a stainless-steel escalator. Mounted on the wall beside the rising stairs were advertisements for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Blockbuster Video, and American Pie 2. But soon those early 21st-century advertisements gave way to ones for Crystal Pepsi, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Embassy Cigarettes, and Pan Am Airlines–for by riding the escalator, Freddie Fedora was being transported back in time.

— from The...