Wichita ? A romance novelist’s ex-husband, charged with falsely accusing the woman of placing a bomb on his front porch, gave police a license tag and description of a vehicle that led them to his ex-wife, a police officer testified.

Gary Brock is charged with felony criminal use of explosives and a misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime. Police officers testified Wednesday in Sedgwick County District Court that someone called 911 from Brock’s home early on March 15, 2004, saying a suspicious person left a box on the porch.

Officer Jamie Crouch said when he arrived Brock gave him a license tag and description of a vehicle.

“Rebecca Brandewyne was what the name of the tag came back to,” Crouch testified. Brandewyne is Brock’s former wife, a romance novelist.

Other officers said the bomb squad eventually found that a cigar box inside a FedEx box on the porch contained what appeared to be two pipe bombs. The package was addressed to Brock, with a bogus return address.

Sgt. John Hoofer testified he went to Brandewyne’s home, less than two miles away, to check her car. He said that more than two hours after the 911 call he gained access to the car parked in her garage and felt no warmth in the radiator or anywhere else on the vehicle.

Under cross-examination by defense lawyer Kiehl Rathbun, Hoofer said a car can retain heat for a long time after a five-minute drive.

“In my experience, it would take several hours to completely cool,” he said.

“Have you gone to any schools on this?” Rathbun asked.

“Hard knocks,” Hoofer replied.

Tom Atteberry of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives office in Wichita said the cigar box contained pipes, wires, some silver powder, a 9-volt battery, nails and screws. Under Rathbun’s questioning, he admitted there was no ignition device.