The Twelve: A Bettie Private Eye Mystery Novella: The Bettie English Private Eye Mysteries, #12

By Connor Whiteley

An Innocent Man. A Jury. 12 People Deciding His Fate.

When Private Eye Bettie English learns an innocent man is going to be convicted, she races against time to uncover the truth.

Far more than Bettie realises depends on her.

From high stake beginnings to its tense middle to shocking conclusion. Bestseller Connor Whiteley's The Twelve takes readers on a shocking, gripping, unputdownable mystery about power, hope and doing the right thing.

BUY NOW!

• Language: English
• Publisher: CGD Publishing
• Release date: Jun 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9798223486763

Connor Whiteley

Hello, I'm Connor Whiteley, I am an 18-year-old who loves to write creatively, and I wrote my Brownsea trilogy when I was 14 years old after I went to Brownsea Island on a scout camp. At the camp, I started to think about how all the broken tiles and pottery got there and somehow a trilogy got created.Moreover, I love writing fantasy and sci-fi novels because you’re only limited by your imagination.In addition, I'm was an Explorer Scout and I love camping, sailing and other outdoor activities as well as cooking.Furthermore, I do quite a bit of charity work as well. For example: in early 2018 I was a part of a youth panel which was involved in creating a report with research to try and get government funding for organised youth groups and through this panel. I was invited to Prince Charles’ 70th birthday party and how some of us got in the royal photograph.Finally, I am going to university and I hope to get my doctorate in clinical psychology in a few years.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

23rd June 2023

Canterbury, England

Private Eye Bettie English sat on her large black sofa in her living room watching her two sweet little angels playing about on the blue rug in the middle of their hard light wooden floor. Bettie loved Harrison and Elizabeth more than anything else in the entire world and she would definitely do anything to protect them.

They were her entire beautiful world.

She dressed them both in her matching white baby-grows and Bettie loved that they were twins so it was never too much of a nightmare to find each other’s clothes. Most days Harrison wore the clothes that Bettie had bought for Elizabeth and vice versa, Bettie really didn’t mind because they were babies and looked so cute whatever they were wearing.

Bettie’s mother-in-law was sitting on the other black sofa watching the kids in her white shorts and t-shirt, and Bettie had to admit set against the blackness of the sofa she did look a little odd. The oddness was made even worse by the immense canvas of a beach hanging above the sofa.

Sometimes Bettie wished the canvas would fall off and land on her boyfriend’s mother’s head, but Bettie loved her really. She was great with the kids and she had been living life as much as she could since the lung cancer diagnosis two months ago.

The day was fantastically warm with bright rays of sunlight shining proudly through the opened windows allowing a nice cool breeze to flow through the living room. Bettie liked how the wind carried the sweet aromas of freshly cut grass, sausages and mint, allowing the great taste of summer barbeques to form on her tongue.

This was going to be a brilliant day.

And later on Bettie fully intended to take the kids out to the park for a picnic with her nephew Sean and his boyfriend Harry. The kids could crawl about and maybe do some walking holding onto trees and whatnot.

It would be perfect.

Bettie really wished that her boyfriend, Detective Graham Adams, was here to enjoy this great day with them but he was sadly on jury service (apparently him being a cop didn’t make him bias in the eyes of the legal system even though Bettie was surprised by that) and the entire jury had been cut off from the outside because the nature of the case.

The judge believed because that the person believed to have committed a group of murders was a former refugee but pillar of the local communities he served, and the sheer increase in far-right hate from the UK government towards refugees at the moment, he believed that the jury could be influenced by all of those factors.

Bettie really, really missed Graham but closing arguments were meant to be heard today and then it would be a simple matter of deciding if the person was guilty or not.

Mamma, Harrison said padding his cute little hands on Bettie’s shin.

Climb up, Bettie said holding her hands to catch him in case he fell.

Graham’s mother didn’t seem to bat an eyelid and Bettie was really starting to get concerned about how the cancer was spreading.

Harrison stood up and smiled and laughed before he fell back down.

Well done, Bettie said. You tried really hard there,

Harrison smiled as he zoomed back over to his sister and made a few intelligent sounding words but Bettie couldn’t understand the rest. She loved babies.

Bettie’s phone buzzed and Elizabeth started zooming over to her so Bettie just laughed.

Dadda? Elizabeth asked.

Bettie checked her phone and amazingly enough Elizabeth was actually right. Maybe kids were psychics after all.

Bettie answered it and realised it wasn’t Graham’s normal number, it was a courthouse line that meant this was one of the supervised calls (the only calls the jury were allowed to have).

Hi babe, Bettie said.

Graham breathed in deep. "I can’t talk for long and of course these calls are being monitored. Closing arguments and deliberations are happening today and I really, really wish the research and talking sections of the Jury code weren’t about. Love you and I’ll see you soon I hope,"

Graham cut the line and Bettie just grinned.

She knew her wonderful boyfriend way too well to know that he wasn’t sending her a message of sorts. It was illegal as hell for a member of a jury to research or talk about the case outside of the courtroom, of course everyone still did that, and Graham was a cop so he would always follow the law.

Yet Bettie knew that Graham was basically talking about the case right now and he was sending her a message.

He wanted her to research and investigate the case herself. She was a private eye and she was the President of the British Private Eye Federation with more power than governments of small countries, and now Bettie really wanted to look at the case herself.

And Graham would only be risking his reputation and position on the jury if he had only come to one conclusion. This man was innocent and he wasn’t sure if the other eleven members on the jury could be convinced of that simple fact.

Graham was an amazing cop and if he thought this man was innocent then Bettie was going to believe him more than anything.

You know what guys, Bettie said to her little angels. How would you like to spend the day with Uncle Sean and Harry?

The two kids shot over to her and started padding