He straightened his shoulders and inhaled. “Bob was a greedy bastard. When they were kids, you’d give them both a present; you know how twins always get the same things?” He paused. “Well, Bob would break his, and then take Derek’s for himself or give it away to some girl he wanted to impress, so Derek was stuck with the broken one.” He looked away. “He wasn’t much different as an adult.”

“But you’re raising money for his charity? You and your daughters?” I was baffled, particularly in the context of what Molloy had just told me in the office.

Jude looked down at the umbrella he was holding and started to stab the ground with the metal point. Four taps, like the pint and the tea. “As you guessed, my mother was in one of his care homes. The one in Sligo. She died there. I couldn’t afford the fees and Bob gave me a massive discount. Whatever difficulty I had with Bob Jameson, he provided my mother with somewhere to live when she was really ill. If she hadn’t gone there, she’d have had to go to Dublin and the girls wouldn’t have been able to visit her.”

“I see. So, he did have some good qualities.”

“Not many, but I suppose I was grateful to him for that.” He sighed. “Sue wanted to do the cycle when she spotted something about it online. Pay something back.”

“And that’s why you volunteered to come along? Because Sue was involved?”

“It was when I found out that he was coming too that I decided to come. Not quite as philanthropic as I appear, eh?” He held his hands up in surrender. “I didn’t trust him, and so I felt better being part of it. Plus, I’m a trained paramedic so at least I could be of some use.”

As much as I liked Jude, something didn’t add up. He hadn’t really answered my question. I still didn’t know exactly why he hated Bob Jameson so much.

He laughed as if noting my confusion, but he’d misinterpreted it. “You think I’m a helicopter parent, don’t you? Minding my daughters as if they were little girls.”

I gave it one more shot. “I’m just trying to figure out what exactly you thought Bob would do, if you weren’t here?”

But Jude shrugged and didn’t answer, as if he’d already said too much. He lifted the umbrella and began striding again towards the hall, leaving me no choice but to trot after him, and once we’d reached the gates, my chance was gone. He held open the huge door and while we climbed the stairs to where the meeting was to be held, I resolved to push him again whenever I got the opportunity. There was something he wasn’t saying.