‘Yeah, you tell him, love,’ Geoff urged, nodding at her over the kitchen table around which they were gathered. ‘Go on, you tell young Pete here.’

Norma needed no encouragement. ‘The din had got the dogs going,’ she said, ‘helluva racket, and even when it was over they wouldn’t shut up. On and on they went. Got themselves all worked up, see, egging each other on, so I went out to quieten them down. Then soon as I had, they started up again. That was when I realised there was somebody there, sort of sensed it, you know? So I shone my torch on him …’ She shook her head as if in a state of disbelief, which in a way she was. ‘You wouldn’t believe what I saw, honest to God you wouldn’t.’ She paused breathlessly.

‘And that was …?’ Pete prompted.

‘The biggest, blackest bloke you could ever imagine,’ Norma said, reliving the moment, ‘had to be about seven feet tall. And when he spoke his voice was like thunder rumbling out of this massive chest. God he was big.’

‘What did he say?’ Pete asked as she paused again.

‘Dunno, can’t remember, but he reached out to grab me, and his giant black hand was all covered in blood, and his arm, too, and his shirt, all drenched in blood.’ She shook her head once again. ‘Oh I tell you, I’ve never been so scared, I knew he was going to rape me.’

‘So what did you do?’

‘I screamed my lungs out and belted inside. Made Geoff lock all the doors and windows.’

‘She was terrified all right,’ Geoff said, ‘never seen Norma like that. Never.’

‘This black bloke, he was a soldier, I take it?’ Pete asked.

‘Oh yes, he was a soldier all right, a Yankee soldier in uniform. He’d be one of those Negroes from the camp at Kelso, you know the ones that are banned from town? The army tried to start up a club for them at the old Parslow place a couple of weeks back, but me and Mabel Wicks put a stop to that quick-smart. Can’t have those big black bastards getting drunk and roaming about the place, not with little kiddies around.’ Lips drawn in a thin, tight line, she nodded self-righteously. ‘Just goes to show how right we were, doesn’t it, eh?’

Pete chose to make no comment upon this particular topic. ‘I presume you’re going to report this incident to the US military, Mrs Hodgeman,’ he said.

‘Going to,’ Norma replied with a touch of outrage, ‘bloody well have! Me and Geoff went into town the very next day. We weren’t going to wait around, were we, Geoff?’

‘No way,’ Geoff agreed – Geoff always agreed with Norma – ‘not when your wife’s been threatened like that.’

‘And what response did you get?’