But Lissa didn’t take the prompt. She took her cup from her father and began playing with her hair, twisting and separating the strands with her fingers. It occurred to me that Stan would wince at the damage she was doing. The toddler began tearing the tissue snake apart, as if mimicking his mother.

“Where do you live?” I asked, taking a sip of my drink.

Jude replied for her. “Lissa and I live in Sligo. Sue lives in Galway now.”

“Would you not be better going to a solicitor closer to home?” I said. “I know plenty of good solicitors in Sligo.”

Lissa glanced from her sister to her father. “I can’t go to anyone in Sligo,” she said finally.

“Her ex is too well known,” Jude added, his voice lowered. “She won’t get unbiased advice.”

I looked at him doubtfully. The idea that having less information might make me a better option for advice made me even more uneasy. I regularly encountered clients who wanted me to hear only their version of the truth and I always tried to find a way around it. If I suspected I wasn’t hearing the full story, I asked Leah for background information or looked up whatever I could myself. I was always interested in what people weren’t prepared to tell me themselves.

“That seems unlikely,” I said with a smile as I took a sip of my coffee. “Sligo is a big town.”

“Would you have some time?” Lissa leaned forward, biting her lip. “I know it’s a weekend, but really, I’d be very grateful.”

“There’s something worrying her,” her father said. “You might be able to put her mind at rest. I’d be grateful too.”

I thought about how ready Jude had been to help Phyllis move her books, and I sighed and gave in. “Okay. We can go down to the office after we’ve finished these if you like. I have to check in anyway.” I smiled. “There was a leak yesterday and I can’t imagine it’s got any better overnight.”

Jude looked relieved. Minutes later Tony arrived at the table with orange juice, toast and homemade gooseberry jam, just as the toddler grabbed a small perfume bottle from one of the women’s bags and started to bang it on the table. Sue snatched it away from him and put it back, and it was only at that point that I registered that Jude’s other daughter hadn’t reacted at all to the conversation we’d had. She’d continued playing with her nephew, without saying a word, as if the whole thing had nothing to do with her.