Help the exhausted detective finish typing his dramatic incident report by dragging the correct past-tense verbs into the blanks.

The suspect set the stolen diamonds gently on the velvet cushion. Then, he sat in the leather armchair to admire his sparkling loot. He had just laid his weary head back when the police alarms blared outside. The priceless jewels had lain there for mere seconds before we burst through the door and arrested him!

The suspect set the stolen diamonds gently on the velvet cushion.

"Set" is a transitive verb requiring a direct object ("the stolen diamonds"). "Sat" is the past tense of the intransitive verb "sit."

Then, he sat in the leather armchair to admire his sparkling loot.

"Sat" is the past tense of "sit," which is intransitive and does not take a direct object. He performs the action of sitting himself.

He had just laid his weary head back when the police alarms blared outside.

"Laid" is the past participle of the transitive verb "lay." It requires a direct object ("his weary head").

The priceless jewels had lain there for mere seconds before we burst through the door and arrested him!

"Lain" is the past participle of the intransitive verb "lie" (meaning to rest or recline). It does not take a direct object. "Laid" would be incorrect here because the jewels aren't placing an object down; they are simply resting.