An Innocent Proven Guilty

Philip Hayward is a mathematics teacher who thinks of himself as ‘Mr Nice Guy’. He tries to be generous and giving, but he harbours a guilty secret, he wants his brother, Patrick, dead. Ten years previously they had bought a flat together but when Patrick lost his job through shady deals, a year later, they were forced sell.

As the elder brother, Patrick was the principal name on the mortgage and he held the account. When they sold, the capital payment for the flat was paid into his bank, and he disappeared to America with all the money. The mortgage company came after Phil for the whole debt, leaving him with a huge sum of money to pay off and nowhere to live.

He fantasized about fratricide; the bitterness at his unfair treatment had become greater as time passed and as his poverty weighed more heavily on him.

When a serendipitous meeting reveals his brother’s whereabouts, he stumbles into his brother’s new house to discover a body.