OFFICIALLY DEAD

The story deals with a man, Colin Fenton, who agreed to pass himself off as
another, John Bentley, who intended to do a robbery, in order to provide him with and
alibi. But, while driving Bentley`s car, Colin had an accident and died. Now Bentley's
alibi was even better as he was officially dead. So he could carry out his plan and travel
Spain, where he lived safely to for seven years.
However, before dying, Colin had asked the only witness, Mark Ashwood, to deliver a
message to his wife, Julie. And it was Mark who helped to let the cat out of the bag.
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When the story begins, Colin Fenton was staying at a hotel in Brentwood, a
small town in Essex, beyond the suburbs of London, where he had gone to teach a
computer software course to the staff of a Company. Colin and his wife were partners in
business: their Company, CIF Software Solutions, developed computer programs and
sold them. It was Colin`s job to look after the finances, the marketing and the training
courses, and Julie was a software developer.
Colin had dinner in a nearby restaurant and then had a drink in the pub attached.
Suddenly, he saw something that almost made him drop his glass: it was unreal! A man
standing at the other end of the bar looked unbelievably like him. They were alike: both
in their thirties with identical features and even the same hairstyle, they could be twins.
They started talking his name was John Bentley and he introduced Colin to his
wife Linda. She was hot, in her early thirties, dressed in a black short skirt, with fair
hair, Green eyes and a lot of make-up. She wore heavy gold jewellery. Colin enjoyed
their Company and drank too much. As a consequence, he became very talkative. Linda
kept him asking questions.
When they left, the Bentleys started arguing because Linda had obviously been
flirting with Colin. John used to become violent and hit his wife, but she assured him
she wanted to make sure to meet him again because he could be useful to them: thanks
to him, John could stop being a minor thief, do one big robbery and be rich for the rest
of their lives. He argued he had finished with crime because he didn´t want to go to
prison again, but she claimed he would get away with it this time.
Two weeks later, home in Bath, Colin Fenton had an appointment with his
accountant, Mr Booker, who told him that he had been losing money for the second year
running and, if he didn`t do anything quickly he would soon be out of business. Colin
was confident that a contract with a big company would solve the problem but they still
had to sort out a few technical problems with the software. He had also arranged a bank
loan.
 Back in his office, Colin told Julie nothing about it. Among his mail, he found
an envelope that smelt of perfume. It was a letter from Linda inviting him to have
dinner at their house. He tore the letter into pieces so that Julie didn`t see it.
Linda Bentley was used to getting what she wanted. Early in life, she had learnt
to look after herself, as there was nobody else who did: she had no siblings and didn´t
know who her father was. She was from Glasgow, in Scotland, and grew up in a damp
dark flat. When her mother brought men home, Linda had to sleep in the kitchen. When
she was 12 her mother disappeared but Linda didn`t care. An aunt and an uncle took
care of her. They tried to love her but she no longer knew what love was, and at 18, she
left Glasgow and went south to London. She found a job in a pub, where she met John.
He was an orphan and Linda tried to take care of him. Despite being a lorry driver, he
always had plenty of money. They got married one year later, but soon afterwards, he
was sent to prison. Linda now found out where his money came from. While she waited
for him to me released from jail, she changed her job: she started working in a jewellery
shop in a fashionable area. When John was released, he decided to go straight, so he
started working at the same shop.
Colin phoned Linda and they arranged to meet at the same bar and then go home
for a meal. In fact, Colin thought he would meet the couple, but Linda had chosen
Wednesday because John would be away that night. So she confessed Colin she wanted
to be alone with him. They had a good time, laughing and getting to know each other.
All of a sudden, she asked him if he wanted to earn £10,000 in cash for one evening`s
job. Colin felt uncomfortable and wanted to leave, but she started crying, so he held her
in his arms, stroked her hair and kissed her. He stayed for the night and had sex.
Early next morning, Linda drove Colin back to his hotel, and on the way,
admitted planning everything: her husband needed and alibi. Colin could pretend to be
John for one night, while John did a robbery. There was no risk because they knew all
about the security systems, but as Bentley had a criminal record, it was essential that he
should have an alibi: Colin could stay in a hotel a long way from London using
Bentley`s name.
A few weeks later, Colin made up his mind and phoned Linda. They would do it
in about four weeks’ time, around 10th January. Now it was time to tell John about her
plan. He got mad when he learnt she had been seeing Colin, but eventually she got him
round. John contacted Frankie Simpson at the Red Lion and asked him if he was ready
to fence over a million pounds ‘worth of jewellery.
On 10th January, Colin changed into casual clothes to look like Bentley and
drove his BMW along the motorway until she found the Bentley`s red Ford Escort. He
was given £5,000 in advance and Bentley`s driving licence in case he was stopped by
the police. Colin and John exchanged cars and agreed to meet ton the same place on
Thursday. Colin drove off. He had booked a hotel room in Manchester as John Bentley
and would pone them at 11:30. However, it was so hard to drive owing to the
roadworks, the high winds and the heavy snow that Colin doubted whether he would
make it. Therefore, he decided to leave the motorway and drive along a quiet country
road. But the night was dark and while turning a Sharp bend, the car was out of control,
rolled over and crashed against a huge tree. Only Mark Ashwood, the driver of a blue
Volvo, witnessed the accident. He hurried to the place and when he looked inside the
wrecked car, he saw the driver was still alive, trapped in a mass of twisted metal and
broken glass. He waved to a passing lorry and they phoned for emergencies. Before
dying, Colin asked Mark to tell Julie, his wife, that he was sorry.
Mark insisted that the police gave him the dead man`s name and address in order
to carry out the dying man`s last wish.
In Brentwood Linda and John had everything ready for the robbery, but they
were anxiously waiting for Colin`s phone call. Suddenly, the police arrived. John hid in
the bedroom and Linda opened the door. The officers informed her her husband had
died: everything had changed now but John`s alibi was better than ever, as he was
officially dead. Of course, it meant that John had to stay hidden in the back bedroom
with drown curtains until the day of the robbery. He was a prisoner in his own house.
He felt trapped, angry and miserable. Linda got furious if he went downstairs into the
kitchen to have a drink or something to eat.
The phone kept ringing because people wanted to sympathise with Linda. She
was often away: she had to identify the body, she had to get rid of Fenton`s car (she left
it in a car park near Heathrow Airport so that the police would think he had left the
country). She attended the funeral where Colin`s body was cremated. John slept with his
gun under his pillow: one day he pointed at Linda with it. He was fed up with being
there and he was sure the plan wouldn`t work, but Linda reassured him: it was a matter
of weeks; she would give up her job and tell her boss she was moving back to Scotland.
On one occasion, she allowed John to go out a few hours to a village pub in Saffron
0Walden in Cambridge, where nobody knew them.
While her husband was dying on an icy road, Julie Fenton was at home waiting
for him to phone, The following day, in her office, she still had no news and the client
in Manchester phoned her to say Colin hadn`t turned up. She tried calling Colin`s
mobile phone but she couldn`t make contact. Besides, she didn`t even know which hotel
Colin was staying at. At first she was not worried, just angry: it was just like him to be
so thoughtless. But little by little anger changed to fear. In the morning she called the
police to report a missing person, but the thought he had decided to abandon her.
 Julie wasn’t used to working on the company’s finances: now she learnt she had
lost the contract she had been working on for two months and Mr Booker told her she
was seriously in debt: she owed £10,000 for the time being. He was sure Colin had run
away from his business troubles because he couldn’t accept failure, but Julie argued it
was impossible because he didn’t know the contract had fallen through. She was
heartbroken. She couldn’t believe Colin had abandoned her, so she put an advertisement
and a photo in the National newspapers in case someone remembered seeing him.
Two weeks after the accident, Mark Ashwood, who was an accountant and a
business consultant, went climbing to Wales. After that, he had to see a new client in
East London, so he decided to visit Mrs Bentley to deliver her husband’s message.
When he rang the bell, the only light in the back room went off. Mark went to a
restaurant and, when he came back, Linda, who had been making arrangements with
Frankie Simpson, arrived home. When they entered the house, John called her by her
name and appeared at the top of the stairs: Mark couldn’t believe his eyes: he looked
exactly like the dead man. Linda lied it was a friend of hers who was keeping her
company. Mark delivered his message and left, absolutely puzzled: the woman didn’t
look unhappy, she had another man in the house and he had called her Linda, not Julie.
The next morning, while reading the newspaper, he had another shock when he
saw Julies advert: he was beginning to solve the puzzle.
As a reply to her advert, Julie had a phone call from the Police telling her
Colin’s car had been found. Back home, after collecting the car, she was weeping
bitterly when Mark phoned saying he had bad news for her. They arranged to meet the
following day. Then he explained to her her husband was dead but the Police hadn’t
informed her because he was carrying Mr Bentley`s documents. Julie couldn’t believe
such a crazy story: Colin couldn’t have been driving a Ford Escort in Oxfordshire with
somebody else's documents on him.
After Mark Ashwood`s visit at Brentwood, Linda decided it was time John
moved, so she found a cheap dark hotel for him in the suburbs.
When the night of the robbery finally came, he took a bag with a set of keys, a
torch, rubber gloves, adhesive tape, a wooden box, a Jack, and his gun.
At half past one, Linda drove him in the van towards the centre of London. He intended
to get into the jewellery through the back door and Linda would be back in half an hour.
He then put on his rubber gloves, unlocked the steel shutter, lifted it and opened
the door. He then ran along the corridor and entered the code on the keypad to prevent
the alarm from ringing. He ran back and pulled down the steel shutter. Now he had to
go up to the strong- room and open the electronic combination lock. Before switching
on the light, he threw his coat over the video camera so that it covered the lens. Then he
removed drawers loaded with precious stones and trays of valuable pieces of jewellery
and put everything into boxes. He then pressed a piece of plastic explosive and a
detonator with a timer on the strong-room lock. After that, he went to the front shop
where he stole the contents of two glass cabinets, which he opened with his keys.
However, as he intended to fool the Police and make them believe a well-organized
gang had done it, he smashed the glass display with his car jack; he ran upstairs, stood
on a chair and forced apart the bars below the skylight with his jack. He then smashed
the skylight glass and lock. Next, he set the timer of the detonator in order to destroy the
lock.
He was able to get out just when Linda was parking the van outside. Then, they
loaded the boxes and he rushed inside again to reset the alarm code. The alarm started
ringing, so they drove down the street at high speed. After a while, he got out at the
hotel and she went to the Red Lion where Frankie Simpson was waiting for her. (He
would get £100,000 for fencing over one million pounds' worth of jewellery) It was ten
to three. They checked the jewellery; she kept some pieces for herself and some to sell
later, when they had escaped to Spain. Frankie promised she would have the money in
two days.
She went to bed at six and at 7:30 got up to go to work, where she got at nine.
She tried to look surprised to avoid suspicion, but nobody disturbed her, due to the fact
that her husband had recently died. Her boss even gave her permission to leave for
Glasgow immediately.
On Thursday evening, Julie found Colin’s passport: perhaps Mr Ashwood was
right after all. She phoned him and arranged to meet at Stratford-upon-Avon (a two
hours' journey) they next day. While talking, they realised Colin and John had
exchanged identities. She was determined to start a new life, but not before giving Colin
his own name, so they decided to see Linda Bentley.
In the meantime, Linda was making preparations to leave the country. The
boarder official in France and Spain wouldn’t know he was officially dead, so he could
still use his passport. Once in Spain they could get themselves new documents. Then
she drove to the Red Lion where Frankie had a bag full of banknotes ready for her. Just
when she was leaving her hour forever, Mark and Julie parked the Volvo on the other
side of the street. They decided to follow her. By the time she got to the cheap hotel,
Linda had realised she was being chased, even after John joined her on the van. So she
turned off the man road into a narrow country late and stopped the van, locking the way.
John fired his gun and shot Julie through her shoulder, then ran towards the Volvo,
taking aim. Mark threw the door open, smashing it against Bentley's chest, jumped out
of the car and struggled to prevent Bentley from firing his gun again. But Linda kicked
him, took the gun and hit him on the head. Mark fainted.
The Bentleys continued driving, arrived at Dover and got on the ferry for Calais.
A few hours later, they were on a train racing across the French countryside.
Mark and Julie woke up in hospital. They had been found by a motorcyclist.
They told an officer whatever they knew, which allowed the Police to find the
connection between Bentley and the robbery. Besides, they had already found out
someone from inside had done it, because: *the skylight had been broken from the
inside, *there were no footprints on the roof and *the jewellery had been removed
before smashing the glass cabinets, so obviously someone who had the keys and knew
the alarm code had carried out the robbery.
Interpol, the international police organization took over, but it was too late to
catch the Bentleys.
As time went by Julie and Mark became close friends and eventually fell in love.
He took over the company's records and gave her the idea to sell licences to use the
software and not the software itself, which would be cheaper for the client, who would
thus want to go on using her product.
She could update the product regularly to ensure the clients loyalty. Besides, he
advised her not to rent an office.
Soon afterwards, she went to live with him, he taught her how to climb and she
was happier than she had been for years.
The Bentleys were arrested Steven years later, accused of robbery and attempted
murder and sent back to England to be charged.
They were discovered when Linda's aunt died, leaving her her property. To
make the claim she had had to use her real name.
At least, Colin Fenton could be pronounced /declared "officially dead."