Dot handed Maryann a cup of tea in through the hatches, and she and Bobby stayed outside on the towpath, hands cupped round the hot mugs, shivering in the early morning chill although the sun was already beginning to break through. Around them they could hear the clanking of cranes beginning to work, the splash of water as men pumped out the holds of their boats and the distant, mournful sound of a ship’s siren. Soon the tannoy would start crackling and blaring over the wharves, calling crews to be assigned their loads.They’d talked it over and over the night before – Roy Cresswell and the burst of temper Maryann had seen through the window.‘I just don’t like the look of him at all,’ Maryann said on the way home, while the children were quietened by mouthfuls of sweets. ‘The way he threw that box across the room – and the way his face was. There’s something about him makes my flesh creep.’‘He certainly struck me as odd,’ Dot said, ‘but in the end you didn’t really see anything much, and you can’t just go barging in on other people’s marriages, can you?
