RAY: Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and the answer to last week's Puzzler. And this Puzzler was sent via e-mail by someone named Tim Pugh, and the subject was the stakeout.
TOM: I remember it.
RAY: You do.
TOM: Something about two guys go together or something. I forgot now.
RAY: You always ... with puzzles like this, you always have to remember that all the hints are right here. You can't go looking for anything ...
TOM: More than you could ever ask for.
RAY: Outside.
TOM: It's usually more hints than you could ever ask for.
RAY: No, no, there's just one. Here it is: A detective is on a stakeout. He's watching a warehouse where he knows a bunch of crooks meet, but he wants to catch the boss, the kahuna, you know. So he's watching this warehouse from the second floor of a nearby building, and crooks come and go all night, but he decided to wait until the boss shows up to move in. Now, he doesn't know what the boss looks like. All he knows is that he always travels with two bodyguards, never just one, and that he'll be in a white car. Finally, a white two-door coupe pulls up -- an Eldorado, I think.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: There are only two men in the car, so he knows ...
TOM: That ain't it.
RAY: That ain't ... that the Kahuna isn't with them.
TOM: Right.
RAY: They get out of the car and they go into the building. The detective waits. While waiting, he nods off for a few minutes. When he wakes up, the coupe is gone. He watches another half-hour and falls asleep again, and when he finally wakes up for the ninth time, the same white coupe is back. He uses his binoculars to look into the car. Don't forget, he's in a warehouse across the alley. And he sees the car is empty, but he knows that the boss is inside.
TOM: Whew!
RAY: He calls backup. The joint is busted. They catch the big kahuna.
TOM: Wow!
RAY: How did he know?
TOM: You know what I think. The hint ... I have no idea what the answer is, but you know what I think the hint is? The second floor.
RAY: Really? No, the hint is the two-door coupe, because when he looks into the car after it arrives, it's empty. Don't forget, he wakes up, the car is there, but it's empty.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: He notices that the seat back is pushed forward. It's a two-door car. The third person in the car ...
TOM: Sneaked in while ...
RAY: He was in the back seat and got out. So the kahuna was riding up front, of course, and the other bodyguard was in the back seat. And when the three of them got out, the seat back was pushed forward, and he said, "Now I know the big boss is in the building."
TOM: Ah!
RAY: Because there were three people in the car this time and not just two.
TOM: Oh, man!
RAY: So do we have a winner? Pretty good, huh?
TOM: Well, I do like it. I do like it. But it's better than bo-oh-oh-oh-nus. We have a winner. The winner is Michael Wilk from Quaker Hill, Connecticut, and for having his correct answer selected at random from the yachtful of correct answers that we got this week ...
RAY: And we did. Woof!
TOM: Michael is going to get a $25 gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division of the Car Talk section of cars.com, with which he can purchase two and three-elevenths copies of our tape "Men Are from GM, Women Are from Ford: Calls about Couples and Cars."
RAY: Hey, look, we're going to have a new ... I can't describe it yet because I haven't figured out which Puzzler I'm going to use for the season finale.
TOM: I was wondering about that. It is the season finale.
RAY: This ... yeah. Well, you missed ... this is the seventh game, man. You missed the playoffs, you missed everything.
TOM: I did.
RAY: So don't tune us out yet because that's coming up, baby. In the meantime, if you have a question about your car or anything else, give us a call at 888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
