Rachel’s Secret by Susan Sallis

In 1943, two schoolgirls, Rachel and Meriel, best friends in the Gloucestershire city where they have grown up, amuse themselves by tracking down imaginary German spies. It all seems a harmless way of whiling away the long school holidays, until their game turns into a frightening reality, the consequences of which affect their whole lives. Rachel becomes a reporter on the local paper while Meriel, a GI bride, goes to live in Florida. But the bonds which hold them together can never be broken, as the secrets and scandals which first surfaced in those far-off wartime days eventually come to light.