Possible Clues:

• Of engine, just ticked over
• I had gone ahead and pottered
• I had been in the van and done little about it
• Waited for the light to turn green
• Sat at a red light, say
• Just didn't work to have so died around fifty
• I had done little to have been in the front
• As Ava ___ nearby, gathering her courage,
• Relaxed with source of Johnson's essays?
• I had been in the lead, but didn't get a move on