Chapter 6: Who Could I Trust

‘It was because I realised that you are the very first person that I’ve ever said, ‘I love you,’ to in my whole life.’ Cliff stood up and took him in his arms. As they held each other close with their heads on each other’s shoulders, Shane felt so happy.

Cliff felt very moved and had a lovely warm feeling in his heart. They held each other for quite a while, then Cliff sat back on the end of the settee. Shane stretched out with his head on Cliff’s lap without needing to be told. Cliff stroked his forehead with one hand and rested his other hand flat over his hairs and soft cock.

Shane smiled at him and told him, ‘I’ve never felt as happy as I do at this moment.’ ‘That’s how the rest of your life is going to be,’ Cliff assured him. ‘But we still have a bit more work to do yet. Let’s go back to Carter now and what he told you.’

‘Before I tell you what I think Carter told you, let me remind you that I promised you that nothing you told me in this room would ever be repeated to anyone else without your consent. As far as I am concerned, nothing means exactly that - nothing, no matter what it is, or how serious it is.’

Shane went cold. He was beginning to think that Cliff really did know. ‘It’s my belief,’ Cliff began, ‘That when Carter returned home after his late night out, he arrived back at the same time as your dad did, who no doubt was very drunk. I suspect that your dad had intended to go to the shed to spend the night, or perhaps just for a crafty smoke before going in.’

‘Finding Carter arriving at the same time, his desire for a smoke turned into his other desires. I think that he grabbed hold of Carter and forced him into the shed. Carter knew what was coming, but whereas he had got used to putting up with it for so long, he was eighteen now and feeling stronger and more assured.’

‘I think he felt it was time that he stood up to your dad and stopped what he was doing to both of you. I think that either he fought back when your dad attacked him, or he just attacked your dad when the opportunity arose. We’ll probably never know if he deliberately tried to kill him, or if he just fought him off and he died in a fall.’

‘From our point of view, it doesn’t really matter. When your dad didn’t get up, and Carter couldn’t find a pulse, he assumed he was dead but couldn’t be certain. So, he left him there, locked up the shed and came in. His comment to you about ‘You can sleep in peace now.’ was an unusual phrase, and that started me thinking.’

‘I think that Carter was fairly certain that no one else would go into the shed for the next few days, and by morning when your dad hadn’t appeared in a rage, he went to work as usual. But when he came home, he went to the shed.’

‘Finding your dad exactly as he had left him, but now stiff and cold, he was certain he now had a dead body on his hands. ‘For two days he checked on him each time he came home, still wanting to be certain that he was dead. Also, whilst he tried to decide what to do.’

‘Getting rid of a body is not easy. Getting rid of a body without what you’ve done coming back to haunt you is almost impossible. I don’t know whether the mower started leaking petrol as a result of what happened between your dad and Carter, or if Carter made it leak.’

‘I suspect the latter, because if it had leaked the first night, the shed would have been so full of fumes, that Carter would have blown himself up when he lit the fire.’ Shane’s look of despair at that point confirmed to Cliff that he was on the right lines.

‘I suspect that after a lot of thought, Carter worked out a safe way to light it without being caught in the inferno himself. He needed the petrol to be part of it to destroy any evidence. But he would have realised that if he just emptied the can of petrol all over your dad and then lit it, the explosion would kill him too.’

‘My guess is that he lay a trail of rolled up newspaper from under the mower to near the door. Then he put the full can of petrol, still sealed up, on top of the mower, alongside your dad’s body. Next, he made a small cut in the hose from the petrol tank on the mower, feeling certain that the rubber pipe would disappear in the fire and hide his cut.’