Detective Green went first, spoke slowly (7)
I believe the answer is:
drawled
'spoke slowly' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with communicating as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'detective green went first' is the wordplay.
'detective' becomes 'd' (this might be a standard abbreviation of which I'm unaware).
'green' becomes 'raw' (both can mean naive or inexperienced).
'went first' becomes 'led' (I've seen this in another clue).
'd'+'raw'+'led'='DRAWLED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for drawled that I've seen before include "Spoke lazily like dawdler" , "Uttered slowly" , "making prolonged speech" .)