Please have a look at these two paragraphs:
What indeed? While she was walking through the forest, she saw a wolf strolling slowly towards her, humming something to himself. A minute or so earlier, the wolf had been watching her from behind a tree, and had thought to himself, "She'd make a nice juicy meal".
I saw this girl when I was parking my car last night. She was crying. She explained she had a terrible fight with her boyfriend while he was giving her a ride home earlier, which ended in his pulling over and forcing her out of the car.
Why in the first example you use past perfect (continuous) and in the second example you don't use it? In both cases it is obvious that actions were before reference time and both actions lead to the actual situation.