Who killed Wellington?

       A 15 year old autistic boy named Christopher finds his neighbors dog killed with a garden fork. Now he wants to take this opportunity to solve a crime and write a good detective book while doing so. Chris is very smart, but he is yet to find out that was his father, Mr. Boone, who was guilty of killing the dog, Wellington.

       If Mr. Boone wasn't guilty, he probably wouldn't care about Christopher trying to figure out who killed the dog. The first time Mr. Boone told Christopher to leave it alone was on the drive back home from the police station. Christopher was just curious about the dog and wanted to know what happened, but Mr. Boone got angry right away "then Father banged the wheel with his fist"- chapter 41. It could be the fact that he's bringing his son back home from the police station at 3am that is making Mr. Boone a little on edge, but he would have no need to want Christopher to leave it if he didn't have anything to do with it. Then, in chapter 79 after Christopher's father finds out he has still been doing some detective work, he gets angry again and tells Christopher to stop, but this time he gives Christopher very clear instructions the way Christopher understands them. He also makes Chris promise to stop the detective game because Christopher can't lie therefore he an't break his promises. Mr. Boone felt the need to go as far as to make Christopher promise to stop trying to figure out who killed Wellington. Mr. Boone being Christopher's father knows that he can't break a promise so he also knows that if he makes Christopher promise, he will stop. Mr. Boone would probably not want Christopher to stop all his detective work if he didn't have anything to do with Wellington's death.

       When Christopher's mother died their neighbor, Mrs. Shears, came over and would spend some nights at The Boone's house. Christopher stated that when Mrs. Shears was comforting his father, she was being a little bit friendly with him. Obviously, if there was something going on between Mr. Boone and Mrs. Shears and they were trying to hide it, Christopher probably wouldn't know, but to a person who understands social cues most people would probably find it unusual for a woman to hug or comfort a man by pulling his head to their chest. Almost the entire class immediately thought Mr. Shears was an evil disgusting man who had been cheating on his dying wife with the neighbour across the street. Then people thought of crazy theories about their relationship that led to the murder of Wellington. It could be true, but it could also have been a red herring. We later learned that it was actually Mr. Shears and Mrs. Boone that were having an affair. Mrs. Shears and Mr. Boone might just be lonely now that their previous spouses left them and are now finding comfort in each other because they can both relate. Mr. Boone could be having a hard time raising Christopher on his own, being the provider of their income but also playing the mother role at the same time and Mrs. Shears, not being busy with a husband of her own, maybe just wants to be a good friend to them and help out the Boone's. Although Mrs. Shears and Mr. Boone seemed to be a little affectionate after Christopher's mother died, it doesn't necessarily mean something was definitely going on between the two.

     As Christopher said in Chapter 67, Wellington's murder would have had to have a motive for why they would even want to kill an innocent dog. Some of Christopher's reasons for why someone would kill Wellington were because they were mad and because they wanted to make Mrs. Shears upset. Mr. Boone could be guilty for both of these things. He has been known to have a short temper, especially when talking about the death of Wellington, and he tends to drink as well. In chapter 41 Christopher found his dad crying and drinking scotch on the sofa at 2:07 a.m. so his father could very well have been drunk and angry one night and did something that he shouldn't have. Mr. Boone also said that Mrs. Shears was not their friend anymore and that Mr. Shears was evil. That is already two people connected to Wellington that Mr. Boone doesn't like. He was also friends with Mrs. Shears before. Now, all of a sudden, Christopher finds out they aren't anymore meaning something had to have happened to end their friendship. If whatever happened was really that bad, it would give Mr. Boone a reason to want to hurt Mrs. Shears and the best way to hurt someone would be to kill or get rid of the last thing left that they love. Mr. Boone has the most reasons to why someone would want to kill Wellington and is known to sometimes drink and be a bit hot-tempered.

     In the midst of writing an interesting detective novel, Christopher will soon discover that it was his own father, Mr. Boon, who was responsible for the death of their poor neighbour's dog. Who knows why or what the real cause of this murder was. Now all that's left for Mr. Boone to do is admit what he has done to his son and Mrs. Shears and hope that they can forgive him for what he did to the  faultless dog.