"An hour. Maybe a little longer. You're like really pushing me."

"Then where did you go?"

"There's that little place I told you about, like halfway down the block from Gleason's, with an outdoor café. We went there, so we could sit outside. Columbus Café."

"Did you order anything to eat? Or to drink?"

"Nothing to eat. Just another glass of wine. I only had like half of it."

"And Elise?"

"Same thing. She didn't drink that much."

"Did you know anyone there? Talk to anyone?"

A few seconds of hesitation, again. A few too many. "No."

"Barbara, who did you see?"

She lowered her eyes and changed hands, twirling the hair on the left side of her part. "Oh, God, I don't want to bring anybody else into this."

"That's not a choice you have, don't you understand?"

"It's not going to bring Elise back," she said, as tears welled up in her eyes. "Nothing's going to do that."

"It's about the truth, dammit. Who are you trying to hide from us?"

"Nobody. Why can't we just leave my statement the way it was?"

"You didn't split from Elise at that café, did you? You didn't leave her there and walk home, like you told me last week."

"What happens to me if I change my story?"

"If you do it now? Nothing. If you wait until you've testified falsely under oath, then we get to figure out if you've committed perjury." Barbara pulled the strand of hair across her lips and began to chew on it.

"You're doing a lousy job, Coop. You're gonna give bad cops a good name," Mike said, stretching his arms out and cracking his knuckles. "Isn't this when you tell her to get the friggin' hair out of her mouth and stop whining about herself?"

Barbara's face soured at the sharp sound of his words. "It wasn't my idea. Elise was the one who wanted to go downtown.

I told her it was stupid."

"Every minute you waste, you make it harder for us to find her killer. We've had detectives in and out of Gleason's and that café every night since Elise went missing," I said. No one recalled seeing anyone fitting her description in the early hours of the morning, either with friends or alone. "I believed you, Barbara. I believed that's where you left her. Obviously it's not true. Now, when did you leave Columbus to go downtown?"

"I don't know."

"There's a little operation called the Taxi and Limousine Commission, Barbara. They've got the trip sheets of every yellow cab-where and when the driver made his pickup and where he dropped his passengers off. I'll have those records tomorrow."

"Really?" She twisted her neck and screwed up her mouth. "It's all in their computer by now. I just have to give them the address of the café and ask for the fares that got in after one a.m. The TLC will tell me how many riders, and where they went."

"Okay, all right. There were three of us. Is that what you want to know? I hooked up with this guy I knew at the Columbus Café."

"What's his name?" She was watching Mike as he took out a pad from his rear pants pocket and began to make notes.

"He doesn't want to get involved."

"He's involved up to his eyeballs, simply because he was with you and Elise. Maybe he saw something or someone you didn't see."

"He's going to hate me."

"Did you hear what Mike said? This isn't about you."

"Look, I told Mr. Huff tonight. I told him I forgot that we stopped at another place downtown. I just didn't remember at the time is all. It seemed so unimportant, and I was so upset."

"Who's the guy?" I asked.

She picked up her sunglasses from the table and put them on.

"Cliff. His name is Clifford Trane, okay?"

"Take those off, Barbara." I needed to see her eyes. I needed to gauge whether she was feeding me more nonsense.

"I don't have to take them off. I don't have to be here if I don't want."

"Tell me about Cliff."

She wiggled her head back and forth, as though deciding what to tell me.

Mike took three steps forward and pulled the sunglasses off Barbara's nose. She was beginning to cry.

"He plays basketball for St. John's. He'll be a senior this year."

"Coach would flip out if his name was in the paper anywhere but the sports pages, I guess. Booze and clubbing don't fit with preseason training," Mike said. He would have to fill me in later on the college basketball scene. "Sometimes I think the media drives the criminal justice system, everybody worried about their fifteen minutes of fame instead of doing the right thing. That didn't hurt much, did it? Give Coop the rest."

"Why did you leave the Columbus Café?"

"Because of Elise. She wanted to meet somebody downtown."

"It's a big place, downtown. Where?"

"The Bowery. A bar called the Pioneer." The strip of land that ran from Canal Street up to Cooper Square had been skid row for more than half a century. Gentrification and the spread of yuppie hangouts across SoHo had encroached on the once-dangerous avenue, replacing some of the flophouses and homeless shelters with pubs and clubs. "Who was she going to meet?"

"Kevin. She said his name was Kevin. Or Kiernan. Maybe it was Kiernan. I don't know him, all right? I don't know anything else about him."

"You, Cliff, and Elise-you all took a cab together?"

"Yes," she said, whining more heavily now. "What happened when you got to the Pioneer?"

"It's a bar, Ms. Cooper. Get it? We ordered drinks," Barbara said. "Cliff was doing tequila shots. I think I had wine. I don't know about Elise."

"Why not?"

"She was upset, that's why. We stayed at the bar and she sat down at a table against the wall. She was talking on her cell."

"To whom?"

"Kevin, I guess."

"For how long?"

"Five minutes, maybe ten."

"Then what happened."

"Elise and I had an argument," Barbara said, as tears streaked down her cheeks.

"About what?" I kept digging at her rather than letting her pause to collect herself. The floodgates had opened and she was telling us the real story for the first time.

"I was mad at her for dragging us all the way downtown, like practically half an hour in the cab. I was really pissed off." She wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

"Why? "Because I wanted to go home with Cliff, that's why. I think Elise was jealous of me," she said, growing more sullen as she tried to justify her annoyance at her dear friend. "I mean, I don't know if she made up this Kevin or Kiernan or whoever he is. We went out of our way to go with her to the Pioneer, and the damn guy never showed up. Was I supposed to wait all night?"

"Did she know you were mad?"

"Yeah. Like I said, we had an argument."

"Inside the Pioneer, in front of other people?"

Barbara lowered her head. "In the bathroom. I don't think anyone else would have heard us."

"How did it start?"

"I told Elise that Cliff and I were leaving. It was after three o'clock.

I was tired and starting to feel-you know, sleepy," she said. "I asked her what was up with this Kevin guy, and she like blew me off. Told me to go ahead without her. That'd she'd be fine getting home. I tried to get her to come with me, I really did."

"How hard did you try?" Mike asked.

"I didn't like drag her by the arm and all, okay? Was I supposed to carry her out?"

"Did she know anyone at the Pioneer? The bartender?"

"We'd never been there before. Neither one of us. We only went 'cause this guy Kevin told her he'd meet her there."

"How did she know him?"

"Some party the week before. She said a girl she knew from work introduced her."

"Was she drunk when you left her?"

"Buzzed. I'd say Elise had a good buzz on."

"Was she still drinking?"

"Cliff bought her a glass of wine. Left it on her table. I don't know what she did with it. He was only trying to be nice."