Plan the defense as East when partner leads the heart ace against four spades.You expect the heart ace to be partner’s only high card of use, so you will need to score three more tricks with your own assets. You should make a second heart trick, but your club king is positioned in declarer’s favor. You must hope for two diamond tricks as well, yet you may be disappointed if you sit back and relax.If the defense starts along normal lines, with two rounds of hearts and a black-suit shift, say, declarer can draw trumps, finesse in clubs and eliminate both rounded suits before tackling diamonds. Upon winning the first round of diamonds, you will be endplayed to either concede a ruff-and-discard or return a diamond around to dummy’s tenace.It follows that you want partner to shift to a diamond early, while you still have a safe exit elsewhere, to break up the throw-in. You must discourage at trick one — normally unthinkable when you hold the king and queen — and the best card to play is the heart queen, denying the king. This is a highly unusual card with the jack visible in dummy, so it should divert partner’s attention away from hearts, and looking at that dummy, a club shift can hardly be necessary. Partner should try a diamond, whereupon you cover dummy’s card, cash a heart and lead a third heart, awaiting the setting trick in diamonds.Partner will forgive you your white lie if your alarm clock signal results in beating the contract.