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Chapter 12
I had thought I would have to look up where Abe, as a name, has its origins. The hotel clerk in Las Vegas saved me the trouble. He led us to sign the certificate, or whatever it was, on an oak table in front of the marriage centre, (which was little more than a set of broom cupboards). To get us to the honeymoon suite (it came as a package, like everything else in Las Vegas), he called the lift operator and announced loudly, ‘Honeymoon Suite for Mr and Mrs Abraham Bentwhistle.’ I died a little on my wedding day.
Abe comes from Abraham, father of the nations. Bentwhistle comes from the same place as Grimshaw and should have stayed there. My childhood dream of one day ridding myself of Grimshaw is over. I pray I will wake one morning and discover Bentwhistle is one of his many aliases.
‘No one uses Bentwhistle as an alias,’ he assured me. ‘Aliases m
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