She brushed a tear away. “Each time something significant happened, I thought he’d be there, that something would change. But it never did. I’d get a phone call or a letter, or more recently a text. But never him.” She looked down. “Never him.”

I realized that Nigeria must have been a turning point for Mary. When Bob had come back with two adopted children, he’d been more bound to Amanda than ever.

She hugged herself and rocked a little to and fro. “Oh, it was awful when he was in Africa. I remember thinking, what if something happened to him there? And no one knew that I was the most important person in his life?” There was a plea for understanding in her eyes. “Who would tell me? I wouldn’t even figure. I might not even know.” She sighed. “After he came back, we’d meet, and it was lovely. But he never came here. I always had to go to him.”

“And now he was going away again?” I said quietly.

Mary looked up. “I know what you’re thinking, but it wasn’t intentional.”

I stiffened. Was this what I had been afraid of? Was this why Bob had died? I felt Molloy shift his position behind me too.

“What do you mean, Mary?” I asked. “What wasn’t intentional?”

Her eyes drifted to somewhere over my shoulder. “Afterwards, yes, I thought it was good that he’d died in Inishowen, close to me. That, at least, I knew. I didn’t have to hear about it later. But I thought it would be different, that I’d be able to hold onto him for a bit longer.” She looked down at her cup again. “But it didn’t work out that way.”

I tried to keep the panic out of my voice. “Are you saying you had something to do with Bob’s death, Mary?”

Finally, she looked at me. “Aye. I did.” Her eyes flickered to Molloy.

I reached out my hand to her. “Tell me what happened, Mary.”

She pressed her fingers against her eyelids and took a deep breath. “I saw him leave with Derek. I didn’t trust Derek.”

“Why didn’t you trust Derek?”

She shook her head as if she didn’t want to say.

“Derek was here before, in Inishowen, wasn’t he?” I said. “Working. He told us.”

She nodded slowly. “He stayed here.” She swallowed. “Derek told me things about Bob. He said that I didn’t know what Bob was really like, that he’d hidden a lot of his life from me. He tried to turn me against him. Said that he had feelings for me himself, that he always had.”

At that point Molloy came into the room properly and leaned against one of the chrome cabinets. “What happened that night, Mary?”