* 17 Start of a message * 19 Beehive State athlete * 20 Polo or Garr * 21 It's under foot * 22 Feel poorly * 23 Classic Ford model * 26 Threatening sentence-ender * 28 TV broadcast band * 29 Message part 2 * 32 Synthesizer inventor * 34 Gets bored with * 35 Bio by Molly Ivins * 37 Have a couple of eggs?

* 38 Xerox competitor * 42 "I'm OK with it"

* 45 Iditarod race place * 46 Message part 3 * 50 Links number * 51 All told * 52 Falls in New York * 54 "___ whillikers!"

* 55 Till bills * 58 Hoofbeat sound *

* 59 Easy mark * 60 End of message * 64 Cobra kin * 65 Bungled play * 66 Streamlined * 67 Fourth of July?

* 68 Oceans, in poetry * 69 Connecticut campus DOWN.

* 1 Mai ___ * 2 Long in the tooth * 3 Is a fan * 4 Basic belief * 5 ___ Friday's (restaurant chain) * 6 Big coffee containers * 7 Brouhaha * 8 Makes fit * 9 Lower-ranking * 10 Violent gust of wind * 11 Pediatric mental disorder * 12 Actress Sobieski * 14 Lamb, at large * 18 North Dakota city * 23 ___ the word * 24 "Oops!"

* 25 Jury verdict * 27 Small and lively * 30 Garbage * 31 "Yo, dude!"

* 33 Enthusiasm * 36 Closed, as a sports jacket * 39 Confess to less * 40 "The Mod Squad" costar Epps * 41 Juno, to Greeks * 43 Mined over matter?

* 44 Cager Strickland or Dampier * 46 Puzzle cutter-upper * 47 On edge * 48 Treeless tract * 49 Some surrealistic paintings * 53 "Holy smokes!"

* 56 "To be," to Henri * 57 "Cut it out!"

* 61 Surgery sites, briefly * 62 Brooks of "Blazing Saddles"

* 63 Barely manage, with "out"

"That's entirely possible, Harvey." Cora stood up, prompting Harvey to do the same. She put her hand on his shoulder. "Here's what you should do. You should go home, take a look at the clock. Try to imagine where you were when I brought you the chairs. What angle you might have seen the clock from. Remember, you wouldn't be paying much attention to the clock, because, after all, you were excited about getting the chairs back."

"I suppose so."

"Excellent, Harvey. Go home now, think it over. Because the last thing in the world you want to do is tell the police something you're going to be cross-examined on in court. And then some snide defense lawyer's gonna ask you how you know for sure. If that defense attorney's got blond hair, long legs, and a skintight sweater, she may make you jump through hoops."

Harvey's eyes were wide. "But... but..."

"Go home, take a good look at the clock, and search your memory. Because you don't want to be that type of witness who's so sure of himself he trips over his own feet."

Cora winked, pushed him out the door.

Harvey pointed. "What about them?"

The news vans were still parked at the foot of the drive.

"You didn't talk to them on your way in, did you, Harvey?"

"No."

"And you're not going to talk to 'em now. If they try to stop you, keep on going. It'll be harder, because they'll wanna know what we said. Ignore them. Pay no attention. Just keep on driving. Run over a few of them if you can."

Harvey looked aghast. "But-"

"Attaboy." Cora clapped him on the shoulder, banged the door shut.

Aaron Grant spread his arms. "Well, there's my story."

"You wouldn't write that," Sherry said. "Cora, what do you think you're doing?"

"Harvey's mistaken. I brought him the chairs at three-thirty."

"There's no chance you're mistaken?"

"Sure there is. That's not the point. I gotta give myself a little wiggle room. The guy was killed between twelve and four. Even stealing the chairs at three-thirty's cutting it close. Four-thirty fries my fanny."

"Why?" Sherry said. "You didn't have to take 'em straight to Harvey. You could have come home first."

"Yeah, but I didn't."

"But they don't know that."

"Yes they do. That's what I told the police."

"You talked to the police?"

"Just Chief Harper."

"Does Becky know?"

"It was off the record."

"You guys do know I'm sitting here?" Aaron said.

"You're not writing this, Aaron."

"Of course I'm not writing this. People would think I was a gibbering idiot. Let's nail down what I'm not writing. Cora, is it my understanding that you're trying to get Harvey to change his testimony about when you delivered the chairs because if he doesn't it's going to make you look guilty?"

"Look guilty? No. If he doesn't change his story, I am guilty. I have a little problem, Aaron. I told Chief Harper I picked up the chairs and took 'em straight to Harvey. I also told him the body wasn't there. Well, if the body wasn't there by four-thirty, I am out-and-out lying, because the guy was dead before four o'clock. And it's not like he could have been shot somewhere else and been brought to the motel, because the gun was there, and hadn't been fired yet."

"Did you tell that to Chief Harper?"

"Off the record. If those are the facts, I must have done it. It's even got me convinced."

"So Harvey must be wrong," Aaron said.

"Thank you!" Cora said. "Finally! Someone taking me at my word and stating the obvious. That's right. I! Didn't! Do it! So any'one proving I did it must be mistaken. I know I didn't do it, which is how I know Harvey is wrong, which is why I'm asking him to evaluate his statement to the police."

Cora flopped down on the couch, pulled out a cigarette, tapped it angrily on her lighter. "Besides, I'm not guilty of nearly enough things in this case. I'd sure hate to miss a chance at tampering with a witness."

Sherry said, "If what you say is true, between three-thirty and four Benny Southstreet returned to his motel room, most likely in the company of his killer. The killer got possession of Benny's gun, shot him, stuffed the body in the bathtub, left the gun on the floor, and got the hell out of there without being seen. All in the space of half an hour."

Cora shook her head. "It's not much, but it's all I got. You put it that way, it could have happened. You put it Harvey's way, it couldn't."

"Just as long as he changes his story before he talks to the press," Aaron said. "Public opinion's a tricky thing. People get something in their minds, it's hard to change it. It's important the first thing they hear is three-thirty. If you want, I can do a whole column based on that, get the idea out before anyone has a chance to hear what Harvey has to say. If he decides to stick to four-thirty, they'll have heard your story first."

"Good idea." Cora heaved herself off the couch, headed for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To get my story out first."

Realization dawned. "Hey, it was my idea!" Aaron protested.

"So come along." Cora banged out the door with Aaron and Sherry on her heels. She strode down the driveway to where the news crews were waiting. "Okay, gang, fire 'em up. You're getting a statement."

Microphones were shoved in Cora's face, as camera crews jockeyed for position.

"Can we get your house in the background?"

"You can if you aim right. That's up to you. Okay, we're going in five, four, three, two, one." Cora turned on the Puzzle Lady charm. "Hi. I'm Cora Felton. I have a statement to make regarding the Benny Southstreet murder. I have helped the police in the past, and I am eager to assist them in this particular case. Here's what I know so far. At three-thirty yesterday afternoon, I inspected Benny Southstreet's motel room. Mr. Southstreet was not there. His body was not there. His gun was there, but it had not been fired. I left the motel room at three-thirty yesterday afternoon, and never went back. I never saw Mr. Southstreet yesterday, alive or dead, and I have no knowledge as to how or when he returned to his room. Thank you very much."

Cora strode back up the driveway as reporters shouted questions.

The phone was ringing when they came in the door. Sherry ran to answer it.

"If that's the media, she's not talking," Aaron said.

"Now you're my publicist?" Cora said.

"It's Becky," Sherry called from the kitchen.

"Uh-oh." Cora padded into the kitchen to take her medicine. "Hi, Becky. Been watching TV?"

"No. Why?"

"Oh. Never mind. Why'd you call?"

"It can wait. What did I miss on TV?"

"You first."

"Cora."

"You called me. What's up?"

"Autopsy report," Becky told her. "Doc narrowed down the time of death. He's now placing it between one and three."

Cora's mouth fell open. "One and three!"

"Yeah. Now, what did I miss on television?"

"Oops."

Chapter 41.

"IS THERE ANYTHING else you want to tell me?" Becky asked.

Becky and Cora were eating takeout in her office. Becky was picking at a chopped salad, and Cora was building her strength with a pastrami on rye.

"You mean like I killed Benny Southstreet?"

"Is that a confession?"

"Not so you could notice."

"Well, could you do me a favor and stop with the sardonic admissions? Someone's going to quote you out of context."

"It's just us girls together."

"Yeah, but one of these girls would be a lot happier if the other of these girls would keep her mouth shut."

"How was I to know the doctor was going to blow the time of death?"

"Are you sure he did?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. I had that gun in my hand. It was after three o'clock and it hadn't been fired."

"Could you have made a mistake?"

"No, I could not have made a mistake. This is not some minor thing like picking up the dry cleaning. This is my murder alibi."

"It wasn't at the time."

"Huh?"

"When you saw the gun there hadn't been a murder. There was no reason to note the time."

"There was no reason to blow it by two hours either."

"Two hours?"

"Harvey Beerbaum says four-thirty. I say three-thirty. You say two-thirty. That's a hell of a stretch."

"It's gotta be two-thirty. At least, that's what I've gotta sell a jury. Which is a real kick in the head, now that you've said three-thirty. You know how hard it is to change a first impression."

"That's why I did it. To head off Harvey. How was I to know I was going to be undermined?"