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DETECTIVE SERGEANT EDWARD MANNERING lived with his growing family at No. 7 The Dyke, Oldbury, a red brick cottage of an age when the decorative arts were not an obsession with builders. It had been his afternoon off duty, and, according to his wont, he devoted to fishing in the canal. When, for the first time, he took his eldest son along with him be must have known it he would be in for a strenuous event, for Mrs. Mannering, with the cares the household on her shoulders, disapproved of the pursuit.
"It isn't as if you ever brought home some fish that a body could eat. I had to give your last little lot to the cat, and now, just when Tommy's getting to be of an age to do something useful, you take him out and teach him to waste his time with a worm on the end of a hook."
The husband s
