In a famous Sherlock Holmes case, the key clue was a dog that did not bark.
"That's one of the key clues in the entire case."
"Just why is that a key clue?"
I still cannot properly parse the key clue 15/13.
A key clue to the condition of wine is ullage: the fill level in the bottle resulting from evaporation.
Later, the nail gun's distinctive nails become key clues: every house boarded up with those nails contains a body.
The German epigraph at the beginning of the poem offers the key clue here.
If neutron and anti-neutron had differing half-lives, it would be a key clue to investigating that question.
But the key clue was East's double: it had been made only after a pause.