A Psycho Analysis On The Main Characters’s Dilemma In Richard Prescott’s Novel “Officially Dead

APPENDIX I
The Summary of Officially Dead

Colin Fenton is a businessman having a company named C.J.F. Software
Solution. He runs this company along with his wife, Julie Fenton. Their company
develops computer programs and sells them to a number of large businesses. Colin
looks after the company’s finances, the marketing of the software company, and the
organization of training courses while Julie is a software developer.
At the beginning of the story, it is described that Colin Fenton is in
Brentwood to teach at computer software course to the administrative staff of a
company called Sutton Chemicals. In the evening, he goes into a bar. When looking
for an empty seat, he meets a perfect double of himself. The double is John Bentley.
He is with his wife, Linda Bentley. They work in a jewellery shop. John invites Colin
to sit with them and they soon get into a nice conversation.
The meeting with Colin Fenton arises an idea in Linda’s mind about a
robbery plan but John refuses it. He has ever been in prison and he has made up his
mind not to do robbery again. He does not want to be in prison again. He wants to be
a better person. But Linda makes sure that John will not be caught this time.
Back to Bath, Colin has his usual life again. He and his wife, Julie, always go
to work in separate cars. They leave home at different times in the mornings and
arrive home at different time in in the evenings. During the day, they hardly see each

other. They are busy with their own jobs. Both of them regularly travel to see clients
– Julie to sort out technical problems, Colin to sell the software and teach training
courses.

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But after running for some years, the company has a financial problem. The
business will not survive unless there are some large orders coming. The company
actually is developing some important new software for a big insurance brokers
named Jackman’s but unfortunately the contract is not signed yet. But in a few
months, everything will be ready and the contract will be signed.
One day when Colin is at his office, he sees a small envelope with his name
on it. It is from Linda Bentley. It says that Linda invites him to have dinner at their
house. A few weeks after, Colin calls Linda Bentley to set the time for their meeting.
It will be on Wednesday evening which is a perfect time according to Linda because
she will be alone.
On the following Tuesday, Colin leaves his home in Bath and travels to
Brentwood. The next evening, when he is in Brentwood, he starts to regret his
agreement to meet the Bentleys because he is exhausted. He decides to call and
cancel their meeting but when he looks at his watch, he realizes that it is too late. So

he dresses up and goes to the pub where Linda has been waiting for him. For his
surprised, John does not join them because he is in Liverpool to watch a football
match. Colin does not agree with his meeting only with Linda and asks for another
time to meet but Linda insists on their tonight meeting.
After a few drinks, they leave the pub and Linda drives them back to her
house. They spend the next couple of hours eating, laughing, and getting to know
each other. Finishing their meal, they continue by drinking coffee. Linda then offers
£10,000 for one evening’s easy work. Colin is surprised and thinks that Linda is
making fun of him. He knows that he has a financial problem and he is expecting
something but not like this one. Colin then asks Linda to take him back to his hotel.

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The next morning, Linda drives Colin back to his hotel. When reaching the
hotel, Colin asks again about Linda’s offering. It seems that he is interested besides
he needs money to save his company and Linda’s offering is a suitable option. Linda
then explains about what Colin has to do. A few weeks after their meeting, Colin
calls Linda and agrees to help. Not just to be John’s alibi but Colin also wants to take
part in arranging John’s alibi in their next meeting. His taking part in arranging
John’s alibi is because he wants everything to run well without harming somebody.

The date for the robbery is arranged for 10th January. After everything is set,
Colin realizes about the risk he is going to face. Colin knows if the robbery does not
run according to the plan, there is a possibility that he will be caught and put in a jail.
But the money that Linda offers makes him keep straight to the plan and consider
that it is only an exciting game. Having finished arranging the robbery plan with
Linda Bentley, now it is the time for Colin to deal his wife. Julie does not have to
know about the robbery plan so Colin makes a fake meeting out of town.
On 10th January, Colin leaves his house to Manchester. After a two hour trip,
he drives into a small road where the Bentleys have been waiting for him. After
being explained a few things, Colin asks about his money. Linda takes out a thick
envelope from her bag and hands it to Colin. After the meeting, Colin drives along to
Manchester. But on his way there, he gets an accident. His car crashes into a huge
tree by the side of the road. He is trapped in the driver’s seat, the steering-wheel
pressing into his chest. Another car witnesses the accident. He looks inside the
wrecked car and sees that Colin is trying to speak. He asks the man trying to save his
life to tell the truth to Julie.

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Meanwhile, John and Linda Bentley are waiting nervously in Brentwood. It is

almost midnight but Colin has not phoned yet. They do not know that Colin has an
accident and dies. Then two police officers come and inform Linda about “her
husband’s death.” Colin’s death makes them have to change the plan into a better
one. Everybody will think that John Bentley is dead, not Colin Fenton. There will be
a funeral and the body will be cremated. And for the meantime, John has to stay
hidden. When the funeral is over and everything is quiet again, John will do the
robbery.
Back to Bath, Julie Fenton is working when she has a phone call from
Jackman’s asking where Colin is. He does not appear for their meeting. Julie gets
angry and as the evening passes, her anger turns into worry because there is still no
phone call from Colin. On the next morning, she calls the local police station and
makes a report of a missing person. She also makes an advertisement in the national
newspaper. Surprisingly, the man trying to save her husband, Mark Ashwood, reads
the advertisement and decides to investigate. Recently he went to Linda Bentley’s
house to tell her about “her death husband’s last wish.” When he was there, he was
shocked because he saw a man’s face who exactly like the face of the man he had
seen die. Moreover the man had called out “Linda” not “Julie.” Mark then calls Julie
saying he has some information about her husband. Julie agrees to meet him the next
day. When they finally meet, Mark tells her about the accident. He also tells her
about his visit to Linda Bentley’s house. He ends by saying that Colin Fenton dies in

that car accident and his death is being used by other person.
The day of the robbery then comes. Linda drives a van to reach Sandwell’s,
the jewellery shop. At one thirty-five, they arrive there and Linda drives the van to

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the back of Sandwell’s. John goes out the van and tells Linda to comeback in exactly
half an hour. He then unlocks the steel shutter protecting the door and he has twenty
seconds to lock the door again by entering the correct code on the keypad of the
shop’s security system. He runs along a corridor. Half way along the corridor is the
manager’s office and on the wall outside is the keypad. John quickly keys in the sixfigure code. Next he closes and locks the door. John walks to the opposite of Mr.
Rose’s office door. It is the strong-room where the shop’s main stock is kept, as well
as some very valuable stones. John turns the door of the strong-room by entering
another correct code. Next he pushes the door open and enters the room. But before
taking the precious stones and jewelleries, John takes off his coat and throws it over
the camera, so it covers the lens. John does not want his face recorded on the video
recorder.
Finishing with video camera John starts taking the precious stones and
expensive jewelleries. He checks his waitch. It is five minutes to two. He has another
ten minutes before Linda returns with the van. John runs up to the workshop. He

checks his watch again. It is five past two. Linda may be arrive at any moment. He
hurries the downstairs and at the moment, he hears a van stop outside the back of the
shop. He unlocks and open the back doors. Linda has parked the van just outside.
They work quickly, lifting the boxes full of precious stones and expensive jewelleries
into the back of the van. Having finished with it, John rushes back inside to the
keypad and reset the alarm code while Linda starts the van.
A few days after the robbery, Linda Bentley is making preparations to leave
the house. But before leaving, she has to get the money that she earns from robbering
the jewellery shop. Then she goes back to her house, gives the keys to the owner of

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the house, and picks up John at the cheap hotel. At first she does not notice that there
is a car following her but when she arrives at the hotel, she begins to worry. On their
way to a port in Devor, Linda tells John about the car following them. Linda then
stops the van and John starts shooting the car. The windscreen of Mark’s car shatters
and Julie screams, falling to one side. There is blood on her coat. Mark jumps out of
the car and throws himself at John. Mark struggles to hold John’s arms so that he can
not fire his gun again. Linda comes from the van, grabs her husband’s gun, and hits
Mark on the back of his head with it. Linda and John quickly get into the van and

drive on to Dover. As soon as they arrive there, they get onto a ferry for Calais.
Nobody stops them at Customs or Passport Control in Calais. A few hours later, they
across the French countryside on a train going south, towards Spain and freedom.
Mark wakes several hours later in a hospital bed. He is worried about Julie so
he calls a nurse. The nurse tells him that Julie will be fine and both of them will be
all right. When they are feeling better, Mark explains the whole story about Colin
Fenton, John and Linda Bentley to the police officer visiting them. But it is too late
to cacth the Bentleys since they have escaped to Spain. The London Police reports
the crime to Interpol, the international police organization.
Seven years after Colin Fenton’s disappearance, Julie reads a newpaper and
cries. Mark sees the headline – British Couple Arrested for Jewellery Robbery after
Seven Years.

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APPENDIX II
Richard Prescott’s Biography

Richard Prescott writes English graded books for teachers and students. After
many years of teaching comparative literature mostly at the University of

Pennsylvania,RichardPrescott retired from teaching as a Distinguished Professor of
Literature at Hunter College in 1992. Below are his works:
1.

A Practical Handbook on the Illinois Open Meetings Act

: 1982

2.

Food Consumption, Prices, and Expenditures, 1960-80

: 1982

3.

The Flower Seller

: 1992

4.

Elementary Level B

: 1993

5.

Intermediate Level B

: 1995

6.

Ring of Thieves

: 1995

7.

Officially Dead

: 1999

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