OFFICIALLY DEAD

MAIN CHARACTERS:
COLIN AND JULIE FENTON
Colin and Julie live in Bath and own a computer software
company in Bath. The company is called C.J.F. Software
Solutions.
Colin deals with sales, marketing and the company’s
finances and also teaches computer software courses to
employees of other companies.
Julie is a software designer.

LINDA AND JOHN BENTLEY

Linda and John Bentley live in Brentwood. Linda works in
a jeweller’s called Sandwell’s. John also works in
Sandwell’s. He has been in prison.

MARK ASHWOOD
An accountant who lives in Stratford-Upon-Avon. He
witnessed the accident.

FRANKIE SIMPSON
Frankie Simpson is a friend of John’s from The Red Lion
Pub. He is going to fence (sell) the stolen jewellery for
John and Linda.
CHAPTER 1: THE MEETING
Colin Fenton is teaching a computer software course in
Brentwood to the employees of Sutton Chemicals. He
goes to a pub for dinner. In the pub he meets John and
Linda Bentley. John and Colin are identical. Colin spends
the evening talking to John and Linda. They agree to meet
again the next time Colin is in Brentwood. They say
goodbye, then John accuses Linda of flirting with Colin.
John is very angry and has been violent towards Linda in
the past. John and Linda Bentley drive off in their white
van. On the way home Linda suggests that John could do
a robbery and that Colin will be useful. If he does one last
robbery, a big one, they will be able to start a new life.
John doesn’t want to commit a robbery because he has
already been in prison and doesn’t want to go back to
prison.

CHAPTER 2: THE BUSINESS

Colin Fenton has an appointment with his accountant, Mr.
Booker. Mr. Booker tells Colin that his company will not
survive much longer if it doesn’t start making money. For
the second year running, the company is spending more
money than it is making. Colin is aware of the financial
problems and has arranged a bank loan of £20,000. Colin
also says that his company is developing new software,
which they are going to sell to an important insurance
company, Jackman’s Insurance Brokers, in Manchester.
Colin doesn’t tell Julie about the company’s financial
difficulties and that it is danger of going bankrupt.
As well as Julie, the other company employees are Maggie
(the secretary), and Ron and Jenny (computer
programmers). Colin Fenton receives a letter from Linda
Bentley, inviting him to dinner at the Bentley’s house the
next time he is in Brentwood.

CHAPTER 3: THE PLAN

Linda Bentley is 33 years old. She is from Glasgow in
Scotland. She never knew her dad and lived with her mum
until her mum disappeared when Linda was 12. Linda went
to live with an aunt and uncle until she was 18. At 18 Linda
decided to move to London.
She started working in a pub called The Red Lion. That is
where she met John Bentley. John was an orphan. At that
time John was a lorry driver, but he always seemed to have
lots of money. John and Linda got married a year after
they met. John was sent to prison.
Linda changed jobs when John was sent to prison. She
started working in a jeweller’s called Sandwell’s. John
started working there when he was released from prison.
Colin phoned Linda and arranged to meet at the same pub
and then have dinner at the Bentley’s house.
Linda and Colin have dinner together, whilst John is in
Liverpool at a football match with friends. John and Linda
spend the night together. Linda offers Colin £10,000 to
give John an alibi for the robbery because John and Colin
are identical.
The plan is that John will enter Sandwell’s, turn off the
alarm and steal the jewellery. As he has a criminal record,
he needs a good alibi. Colin will spend the night in a hotel
using John’s name. This will prove that John didn’t rob the
jeweller’s.
CHAPTER 4: THE JOURNEY
Colin phoned Linda to tell her he would accept the £10,000
in return for providing John with an alibi. He would stay in
a hotel in Manchester in January, using John’s name.
John knows nothing about the plan and he refuses at first.
Linda explains that Colin has accepted. John becomes
angry and John and Linda have a fight. John finally agrees
to commit the robbery.
They are going to steal £1,000,000 worth of jewellery from
Sandwell’s. Frankie Simpson will fence the stolen goods
for them. The date is set for the 10th of January, when
Colin has to go to Manchester to meet Jim Slater (from
Jackman’s Insurance Brokers) to discuss the sale of Julie’s
new software. Colin tells Julie about the meeting, but lies
to Julie, telling her that Slater phoned to arrange the
meeting. He also tells Julie that she can’t go with him.
On the 10th of January Colin drives in his BMW to meet the
Bentleys. He stops in a layby, where Linda and John are
waiting for him in their red Ford Escort. Colin and John
exchange driving licences and car keys. Linda pays Colin
£5,000. He will receive the other £5,000 after the robbery.
Colin puts his briefcase and suitcase into Colin’s Escort
and they arrange to meet on Thursday after the robbery.
Colin has to phone the Bentleys at 11.30pm from the hotel
in Manchester.
CHAPTER 5: THE ACCIDENT
Colin loses control of the Escort and crashes into a tree. He
is trapped inside the car. Mark Ashwood, who was driving
behind Colin, witnessed the accident and stopped to help.
He couldn’t free Colin, so he stopped a lorry and asked the
driver to phone the emergency services.
Colin stayed with John and waited for the emergency
services to arrive. Colin’s last words before he died were:
“Tell Julie, my wife, I’m sorry”.
Mark Ashwood told the police what had happened and
asked for the victim’s telephone number. The police told
him that until the victim had been identified and the family
had been informed, they couldn’t give him the victim’s
personal details. The police told Mark to phone on
Monday. They also told him he would have to sign a
statement about the accident as he was the only witness.

CHAPTER 6: THE NEWS

Julie can’t understand why Colin hasn’t phoned her and
goes to bed.
Meanwhile, in Brentwood, the Bentleys are waiting for
Colin’s phonecall so they can commit the robbery.
Suddenly, the police ring the bell and tell Linda her
husband has been killed in a car accident.

The following day Linda has to identify “her husband’s

body”. She tells John they will go ahead with the robbery,
but, for the timebeing, John will have to hide in the house.
John and Linda plan to move to Spain after the robbery.

CHAPTER 7: THE WIFE

Mark Ashwood returns home after the accident and can’t
stop thinking about the message the dying man asked him
to give to his wife, Julie.
In Bath, Julie receives a phonecall from Jim Slater at
Jackman’s asking about Colin because he didn’t turn up for
their appointment the day before. Julie can’t understand
what has happened. She tried to phone Colin, but couldn’t
get through to him. She couldn’t contact the hotel in
Manchester either, because no one knew where he was
staying. Normally Maggie, the secretary, booked the
hotels, but Colin had booked the hotel himself this time.
Mark Ashwood is an accountant who lives in Stratford-
Upon-Avon.
The next day, Julie is extremely worried because she still
hasn’t heard from Colin, so she phones the police to report
a missing person.
The police go to Julie’s house and ask for a description of
Colin and his car registration number. They say they will
be in touch if they discover anything.

CHAPTER 8: THE FUNERAL

John Bentley feels like a prisoner in his own house. He is
there hiding while Linda has gone to identify “John’s body”.
Linda arrives back with Colin’s suitcase. She opens the
suitcase and the briefcase. She throws Colin’s things into
the bin (watch, mobile phone, documents etc). She finds
the envelope with the money (£5,000) she had given to
Colin. Linda had borrowed the money from Frankie
Simpson to pay Colin. Linda had told Frankie Simpson that
John was dead. She had also told her boss, Mr. Rose.
Linda abandoned Colin’s BMW at Heathrow Airport that
night.
A few days later “John’s” funeral took place. He was
cremated at the crematorium near Brentwood and the
ashes were scattered there. When Linda returned home,
John was in the bedroom pointing a gun at her. John was
going mad because he was trapped in the house. Linda
has planned everything. She’s going to go back to work
until the end of the month.
John will commit the robbery as planned a few days before
the end of the month. She will tell her boss that she’s
going back to Scotland now that John’s dead. Linda and
John go out for a meal that night. John is glad that in a
couple of weeks they will leave the country and will be free.

CHAPTER 9: THE ADVERTISEMENT

On the day of “John Bentley’s” funeral, Julie went to work.
She was terribly worried about Colin. She had never dealt
with the financial side of the business, but she needed to
organize everything now that Colin wasn’t there to do it.
She discovered a letter from Jackman’s Insurance
Company, which said that they were not going to buy the
new software she had developed.
Julie went to see Mr. Booker, the accountant. Booker
explained the financial problems the company had. Julie
had no idea that the company was in debt. He also told her
that Colin had arranged a bank loan.
Julie refuses to believe that Colin has run away and
abandoned her.
Julie decides to put an advertisement in the national
newspapers asking for information about Colin. The
advertisement is published with a photo of Colin Benton.

CHAPTER 10: THE SEARCH

Mark Ashwood was given the name and contact details of
the person who he had died in the car accident. He
planned to visit the dead man’s wife to tell her what her
husband had said before he died.
Mark went to the Bentley’s house in Brentwood and rang
the bell. No-one answered, but he thought there was
someone inside the house. He decided to try again later.
That day Linda Bentley told her boss, Mr. Rose, that she
was leaving her job at the end of the month. She told her
boss that she was returning to Scotland. She then went to
meet Frankie Simpson to tell him that the robbery was still
going to go ahead. Frankie agreed to sell the jewellery and
negotiated his payment for his part in the robbery:
£100,000
When Linda went home Mark Ashwood was at the door.
When Linda opened the door, John was at the top of the
stairs. Mark couldn’t believe that he had seen someone
who looked exactly like the man who had died. This man
called the woman “Linda”, not Julie, which confused Mark.
Linda said that a friend was staying with her.
Mark told Linda what the dead man had said before he
died. Linda said her husband might have been confused
when he’d said “Julie”, not Linda.
The next day Mark saw Julie’s advertisement in the
newspaper asking for information about a missing person
called Colin Fenton, whose wife’s name was Julie. Mark
began to understand what had happened. He hadn’t been
able to sleep after his visit to Linda Bentley’s house.

CHAPTER 11: THE VISIT

The day the advertisement appeared in the newspaper, 2
people phoned Julie to say they had seen Colin at a
service station.
The police phoned to say that they had found Colin’s car at
Heathrow Airport.
Julie went to pick up Colin’s car, but his suitcase and
briefcase had disappeared.
That night Julie found Colin’s passport, so he couldn’t have
left the country.
Mark Ashwood phoned Julie and arranged to meet her the
next day. Mark told Julie her husband had died in a car
accident. He explained how it happened. Julie couldn’t
understand why she hadn’t been informed. Julie thinks
Mark is crazy and doesn’t believe him. He tells Julie about
his visit to Linda Bentley’s house too. He gave Julie his
card and told her to contact him if she wanted to talk. Julie
refused to believe his story.
CHAPTER 12: THE ROBBERY
John and Linda realize John can’t stay in the Bentley’s
house because he might be discovered. He goes to stay in
a cheap hotel in London until the robbery.
On the night of the robbery, Linda picks John up at the
hotel and they drive, in the white van, to the back of the
jeweller’s. At 1.35 John gets out of the van and tells Linda
to return 30 minutes later.
John entered the jeweller’s, switched off the alarm and
headed for the strong-room where the expensive jewellery
was kept. He covered the camera with his coat.
John put the most expensive jewellery and precious stones
into a box and closed it. Then he left the strong-room.
John smashed the glass cabinets in the shop with the car
jack. He also opened the skylight and detonated a plastic
explosive which destroyed the lock of the strong-room. He
then put the alarm back on and left the building to meet
Linda.
The alarm went off and Linda and John drove off in the
van.
Linda left John at the hotel and she went to the Red Lion
pub to meet Frankie Simpson. Frankie and Linda sorted
out the jewellery. Frankie said it would take two days to get
the money for Linda.
Linda went to work the day after the robbery. The police
were there investigating the robbery. She acted surprised
and asked if there were any clues. The police questioned
all of the employees, however, they didn’t ask Linda many
questions because Mr. Rose (her boss) told them that her
husband had died recently. Linda said that she had been at
home alone the night before, when the robbery took place.
Mr. Rose told Linda she could finish up that day as the
jeweller’s was going to be closed. Mr. Rose wished her
luck. She said she was going back to Scotland.
CHAPTER 13: THE TRUTH
Julie saw Colin’s passport and decided to contact Mark
Ashwood to speak to him again.
She phoned Mark and arranged to meet him the next day.
Mark speaks about his visit to the Bentley’s house in
Brentwood. He tells Julie that there was a man who was
the double of Colin. He also mentioned that the man had
called the woman, Linda, not Julie.
Mark believes Colin swapped identity with John Bentley,
but they decide to find out why.
Julie begins to think that there must have been a funeral
too. They decide to go to Brentwood to talk to Linda.
CHAPTER 14: THE CHASE
Linda packs up everything she intends to take with her to
Spain and then lifts her passport and John’s passport. She
goes to meet Frankie Simpson at the Red Lion to get her
money. Frankie hands over the money. When Linda
arrives back at her house, Mark and Julie are parked
opposite in Mark’s blue Volvo. They see Linda hand over
the house keys to a man and then she drives off in the
white van.
Julie and Mark follow Linda to a hotel in London. She
realizes that a blue Volvo is following her. She collects
John and they drive off, heading for Dover, where they will
take a ferry to France.
Linda sees the Volvo behind them, so they turn off the main
road onto a narrow road and block the road. When Mark
turns the bend in the road, he had to brake suddenly
because the van is blocking the road. John Bentley shot at
the Volvo, shattering the windscreen and wounding Julie.
Mark got out the car and fought with John. As Mark is lying
on the ground, Linda hits him over the head with the gun
and knocks him unconscious.
Linda and John escape, leaving Julie wounded and Mark
unconscious. They travel as foot passengers on a ferry
from Dover to Calais (in France). They then catch a train
which is heading for Spain.
Mark woke up in a hospital bed. He didn’t remember what
had happened, but asked for Julie.
Julie had been shot in the shoulder, but she was going to
recover.
A motorcyclist had found Mark and Julie and phoned the
emergency services.
Mark and Julie spoke to the police and explained what had
happened. The police are able to connect John to the robbery
because of some clues in the jeweller’s, which proved it had
been an inside job.
The police in London alert Interpol.
CHAPTER 15: OFFICIALLY DEAD
After 10 days Julie leaves hospital. When she goes back to
work, she asks Mark to have a look at the company’s finances
and fires Mr. Booker.
Mark and Julie become close friends.
Mark suggests selling software licences to companies instead
of having to buy the software. Mark also suggests doing
away with the office to reduce costs. If all the employees
worked form home, it would be cheaper. Julie was happy with
Mark’s suggestions.
Mark sold his house and moved to Bath. He became the
financial director of C.J.F. Software Solutions. Julie and Mark
fell in love and Julie sold her house to move in with Mark.
Mark got Julie interested in rockclimbing. Julie is happier than
ever.
Seven years after Colin’s disappearance, Julie reads about
John and Linda Bentley in the newspaper. John and Linda
had been arrested and were being brought back to England to
be tried for robbery and attempted murder.
Linda Bentley was discovered by Interpol when she tried to
claim the inheritance of her aunt that lived in Spain. Linda
claimed the inheritance in her real name and that was how
she was discovered.
Linda and John Bentley had been living in Spain and using a
false identity. Linda told Interpol that her husband was still
alive and the man that had been cremated 7 years ago was
Colin Fenton. Julie still didn’t know how Colin had got
involved with the Bentley’s, but she thought that now she
would be able to find out. She was happy that now Colin was
officially dead and she knew his death had been an accident.