She shook her head. “I don’t know. I only realized he was part of the cycle when I heard his name this weekend. I’d never met him, and Mary didn’t tell me he was coming. Maybe she was afraid of how I’d react.” She smiled. “Afraid I’d have a go at him. Which I very well might have done if I’d got the chance, but he was never without the wife.”

My mind had snagged on something Phyllis had said earlier and I returned to it now. “You said Amanda didn’t have it easy either. What did you mean by that?”

Phyllis gazed out the window again. “Oh, she’s had her issues, I think.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mary told me she had difficulty having children. I think that’s why they adopted their two Nigerian kids. It caused her to have a breakdown. She’s had mental health issues all her life I think, even spent time in a psychiatric hospital relatively recently. Mary never said so, but I suspect that was one of the reasons Bob gave for staying with her.”

I wondered fleetingly if the hospital could have been St Finbarr’s in Galway. Where Sue Burns worked and where Bob had been on the board.

Phyllis interrupted my thoughts to point out a whitewashed, half-derelict farmhouse. It was the same one I’d noticed on the way out to Mamore with Derek. She rubbed at the window again. “That’s where Mary grew up.”

“She lived there with her parents?” I asked.

Phyllis nodded. “Unusual at the time to be an only child. I think she wished for a big family, with lots of brothers and sisters.”

“I can imagine.” The house was in a beautiful setting, but it must have been a lonely enough place to grow up. It was out on its own with a long straight laneway leading down to it.

A few minutes later, I took the turn-off to the Isle of Doagh and headed for Pollan Bay beach. We parked at the Castles where there were a few cars already. We climbed out of the car to a brittle blue sky and a strong wind that I hoped would help dry out the land. Fred took off immediately like a bullet across the wet sand, tail flying.

“Poor dog, he’s dying for a bit of fresh air,” Phyllis said, taking his lead from the dashboard and wrapping it around her wrist. In her other hand was a bone-shaped container of plastic bags. “He’s been cooped up for days. All he’s had is a quick poo walk in the evening. Mind you, that’s all any of us have had.” She grinned. “Oh sorry,” she said abruptly, stepping aside to let a man brush past.