I hate to admit this but over the many years of our association, I have actually come to rely on Dumbrow. Not just on his summoning me like a genie but also on his uncanny ability to foul up. Perhaps that explains the occasion on which I was even able to save Dumbrow his job.
You see, we were both part of a task force following the movements of a gang of thieves through the city. From our surveillance we knew that they were about to move a big shipment and we were determined to stop them before they could do it. The key figure was the guy who would be driving the truck. We knew who he was and we decided to pick him up, but a good legal excuse to detain him didn’t present itself.
The day of the shipment was therefore very tense because it meant that the task force would have to use force to confront the gang. A very risky affair. As Dumbrow and the other cops prepped for this, I was positioned in the office with the task force leader. He was going over Dumbrow’s surveillance report, when one line in particular caught his
attention. According to this entry, at 11:00am Dumbrow had “observed the truck driver going the wrong way down a one-way street.”
“That fool,” the team leader said, “why didn’t he arrest him then and there and save us all this? I’m going to have his head!”
But I knew Dumbrow – knew him to be the literal boob that he was – and on that basis I explained to the team leader precisely why he had not arrested the driver, thus saving him his job.
What did I explain to the leader?
Nano Solution______________________________________________
“That Dumbrow didn’t have his ticket book with him,” you say, trying to squeeze a note of the obvious into your tone.
“You don’t need a ticket book to arrest someone,” Nano says slowly, as though talking to a child. “No, I am afraid it is much simpler than that; another example of the bolt of the obvious.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, as only Dumbrow could, that the truck driver was on foot.”
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