Response from agent — lazy, heartless (5)

I believe the answer is:

'response' is the definition.
('reply' can be a synonym of 'response')

'agent lazy heartless' is the wordplay.
'agent' becomes 'rep' (short for representative).
'heartless' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'lazy' with its middle taken out is 'ly'.
'rep'+'ly'='REPLY'

'from' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for reply that I've seen before include "Returned statement" , "response is demanded" , "Reciprocate" , "Come back" , "Return" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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