As the story begins, an event happens which forces Christopher to do something he’s never done before. Christopher finds his neighbor’s dog Wellington on his neighbor’s lawn with a fork in its head. Christopher feels sad for the dead animal, so he starts to investigate. But as time goes by, Christopher’s dad began to tell him to stop investigating the murder and to forget about it. As if compelled by an unknown force, Christopher decides to investigate further, and finds out his dad killed the dog. Through Christopher’s point of view, he must have thought of this as an internal and external achievement. Christopher soon began to develop a feeling of distrust towards his father because his father was the murderer and the one who lied about Christopher’s mother.
Christopher’s family life leads to him having an internal achievement later in the story. Christopher’s mother is an important person in this novel because she reveals what his dad has been trying to cover up this whole time. Christopher’s mother apparently dies one day at the hospital a couple years before the story takes place. Christopher remembers certain things about his mom and believes his dad when he says that she is dead. One day, Christopher discovers the truth about his mom while looking into the murder of his neighbor’s dog