Bill grabbed an opportunity to spend his last few weeks of civilian life with some money in his pocket and an easy job.  They went to the track and watched the races on the next Saturday night and were locked in behind the high walls after everybody else had left.

The entrance to the prison as it looks today - now it leads to a smart new inner city development with offices and business premises.  The last public executions in Derby were carried out on scaffolds erected before these gates.

Just over one hour into their shift (not long after making their first telephone call to the police), they heard a single loud noise which sounded like a hammer striking solid wood.  Opening a window, looking out at the spacious, pitch dark field below them and straining their ears, they agreed that they could hear somebody talking some distance away.  It was a man's voice and though they couldn't pick out any actual words, he seemed to be angry or afraid.

Bill and Brian debated the idea of using the telephone to summon the police; but they decided to investigate themselves.  They'd grown up in a rough neighbourhood and both of them knew how to use their fists, so the prospect of a fight with a burglar or even a group of intruders didn't deter them.  In fact, they looked forward to showing their employers how effectively they could punish would-be thieves.

Walking through the deserted tiers of the stadium with a bright full moon to light their way, they saw several people walking in a steady procession across the central field.  Somebody was chanting or praying and these regular tones were punctuated with the increasingly agitated voice that they'd first identified.  When the figures reached the middle of the field, they slowly faded away and vanished.  But the most disturbed speaker continued to cry out for a few moments longer until his voice abruptly ceased in mid-flow...cut off with a hideous strangled scream.

The two teenagers were unnerved; they bolted back up to the office and slammed the door shut behind them.

After a while they felt a little ashamed of being frightened and ventured outside again.  They could feel the atmosphere of the place weighing upon them like lead; Bill and Brian began to shiver because the air temperature dropped suddenly and the previously pleasant summer night air now reminded them of a walk-in freezer.

Worse still, there were more sounds all around the arena.  Moaning and sobbing, undisguisedly ripe with torment and distress, rippled from the shadows and carried across the yawning open space of the central field.

In some of the deepest pools of darkness  lurked human shapes, all of them as flexible and undulating as shadows.  The two youths watched them come and go; some of the eeriest shapes seemed to coincide with the most intimidating sounds.  Bill and Brian were badly scared and a particularly unsettling scream - a long, continuous howl like a dog in pain - broke Brian's self-control completely.  He ran back to the office and left Bill alone in the grandstands.