Who's the Murder?

The killing of Wellington was no mistake, someone had intend for the dog to die and Mrs. Shears to suffer. In my opinion  Mr. Boone was the one to do the horrible massacre of wellingtons death. All evidence leads to him but they have an indirect connection to him.

In the novel it tells us how Mrs. Bonne had a romantic affair with Mr. Shears."Your mother, before she died, was very good friends with Mr. Shears." Mrs. Alexander told Chris this in expectation that it would help solve his case. I would assume that if Mrs. Bonne was having an affair, Mr. Bonne would have been outraged and probably would have done something to hurt either of them. I dont think Mrs. Bonne is really dead. In protection I think that Mr. Bonne hid the fact that she left. "Father said that he didn't know what kind of heart attack she had and now wasn't the moment to be asking

questions like that."   Siobhan even drops a clue to foreshadow the rest of the story by staying  "Perhaps your father just doesn't like Mr. Shears very much." This shows how Siobhan knows something. Chris's father know what happened throughout his marriage, so he might want revenge due to the fact that Mrs. Boone left him, by going for Mrs. Shears. Not saying that Mr. Boone has any feelings towards Mrs.Shears but he might want a rebound or a "hook up".

This being a very opinionated essay topic many could argue the fact that Christopher or Mr.Shears killed Wellington. If you take a step back and think about this neither of them have any reasons to kill the dog. In a Autism fact sheet posted by the National Institution of Neurological disorders and Stroke, they state how autism is found/seen. "Loss of language or social skills", "poor eye contact". We have noticed that Christophers social skills aren't the best by the way he talks to his peer. If his social skills are weak how would he have a need to kill a dog. Every time he talk about Mrs. Shears he only talks good, so it wouldn't make sense if he wanted to get back at her. He didn't want revenge on the dog because "[he] like[d] dogs." He always wouldn't be hugging a dead, bloody dog if he really didn't like him. Mr.Shears has been out of the picture for a long time. If he wanted to get revenge he would have done it earlier. He is probably living with a new family and a new dog. He has no need to re-live his old life that he abandoned ages ago. 

After chistopher gets picked up from the police station, his father yells at him for snooping around in other people business. When Chris asked if his father is sad about Wellington, Mr. Shears replies with "Yes, Christopher, you could say that. You could very well say that." The way he phrases it, raises red flag for me. He could have answered with a simple yes or no but instead he felt the need to elaborate on the topic. Him getting angry is a red herring. He knows his son very well so if he gets angry he knows that Chris won't be able to handle it. He is meaning to throw Chris off so his tail so he can continue keeping his secret.

Mr. Boone has been lying to his own son about the where a bouts of his mother. He obviously isn't the most trust worthy or truth telling person in the world. If he is able to live with the guilt of lying to his son from all these years,why wouldn't he be able to kill a dog and be okay with it? "You have to know that I am going to tell you the truth from now on. About everything. Because. . . if you don't tell the truth now, then later on. . . later on it hurts even more. So. . ." , after he realizes that he has been caught he is confessing everything. This might be when he confesses that he's a dog murder. The next line is when he tells Christopher the truth.. the whole truth. "I killed Wellington, Christopher". Mr.Boone has been lying to everyone, even the ones that are closes to him. 

Mr. Boone is not the guy that he portrays himself as. He is a cold killing murder that lies to his son about multiple events. He is not to be trusted.