You're not dealing with Scooby Doo and Old Man Jenkins here; this kind of thing would make the gang give up the ghost.
▾ Name:
Hester Blanche Benoit
Her superiors tend to just call her Benoit. Otherwise it's Hester or Detective Benoit to most people.
▾ Age:
27
▾ Gender:
Female
▾ Sexuality:
Bisexual, though she's only been involved with males in regards to anything serious. But she's been with women, less so these days but she's not really seen anyone in some time.
▾ Piercings, Tattoos, Scars:
There's a rather bad scar on her right arm that never healed properly and she didn't bother going to the hospital. It's a cut, deep at the time, that has since left a discolored scar. It doesn't hurt, but it's a reason why she often wears long sleeves.
On her right shoulder blade is a tattoo of the initials 'H.H.' Of course she regrets it but can't bring herself to get it removed.
▾ Honest ▾ Cynical ▾ Well Spoken ▾ Methodical ▾
▾ Personality:
Hester is not someone that likes to dodge questions or make up excuses, which is probably why she's never the one to speak to the press whenever there's a newsworthy incident. But her honest approach to the facts at hand, and her belief that lying to the citizens is just going to make them less trusting of the proper authorities, has at least garnered trust between her and the population in Dixie Inn. Not everyone agrees with her approach to police work, often catching the ire of her fellow officers because she's not one to flub a report or embellish a detail, but few can deny that she's got a fair track record of getting her job done. Granted until recently her job mainly consisted of giving lectures to students about drugs or responding to domestic disturbances or parties with the volume too loud, but she's still damn dependable.
Hester doesn't subscribe to the theory that every crime gets solved and sees no reason to say otherwise. Her life with the force has left her rather jaded where before she used to be the idealistic young sort who believed in justice above all.
Outside of the uniform, Hester is something of a romantic; she may not be the idealist when it comes to police work but she still is quite the hopeless idealist romantic, often being spotted at singles bars and events or filing out her dating website profiles at the library or wherever there is wifi and a corner table. She likes to keep a friendly rapport with the community even if only so she can be the one to deliver the bad news to them. Trust is hard to come by and even harder to keep, but Hester believes she has it with most people that know her from the uniform.
Hester is always the one giving the anti drug lectures at the schools simply because she seems to know how to speak to the youth. Which is to say that she treats them not like she's a strict parent but a peer. Kids don't like to be talked down to any more than adults do. That and her frequent references. Rare does a day go by when Hester doesn't reference something from her own youth. It's far less endearing than she believes.
▾ Hobbies & Interests:
Hester's first real passion in life was cooking. There was a time before a criminal justice degree and the police academy where Hester thought she might open a nice cajun restaurant in town. But things so rarely work out the way you want them to. She still enjoys cooking as she finds it relaxing to prepare a nice seafood gumbo or some boudin balls. Whenever there's a fund raiser or local event involving the police, chances are one will find Hester on the grill. On some weekends she enjoys fishing, but only catch and release; she does like fresh ingredients but not to that extent. Fishing is more of a way to unwind from the stress of her job when simply cooking can't get it done. Her grandfather was an accomplished fisherman and the two of them bonded over it as her father found fishing to be the most boring activity possible other than playing checkers.
▾ Likes & Dislikes:
+ Jelly Beans. There's always jelly beans in a dish on her desk. There are no red ones, though, because she hates the red ones that turn out to be cinnamon. Cinnamon are the worst jelly bean.
+ Cooking, obviously
+ Bourbon after a long day
+ Old cartoons. Like from the 50s and 60s.
+ The morning after a heavy rain
+ The word jumble in the paper
-Coke. She's a Pepsi fan when she does drink a soda
-Card games
-Pizza. It's just...it's not good
-Overly muggy weather
-Buddy cop movies
-Music that isn't funk or jazz
▾ Other:
Is barren, which is another reason why she enjoys the school lecture tours.
▾ Biography:
Hester, named after the main character in her mother's favorite book, grew up not in Dixie Inn but in Baton Rouge where her father worked for the Baton Rouge Water Company and her mother was a tour guide for Louisiana Art and Science Museum. She was the first child of two in the Benoit family but after her younger brother died in a rather tragic accident when Hester was in high school, it was obvious that the family never quite recovered. Hester was certain that the only reason her parents didn't split up after the accident was because neither of them even wanted to entertain the idea of starting over again.
Hester would like to say that her brother's death was the reason she started turning to law enforcement but that wouldn't be the case, really. She doesn't quite know why, especially given that her number one career choice as a younger girl was opening a restaurant. One day she just woke up and decided to pursue law, even going for a criminal justice degree in college.
She became an officer with the Baton Rouge Police Department but was transferred to Dixie Inn just a few years after getting her uniform. Her transfer gave way to a promotion, and Officer Hester Benoit became Detective Hester Benoit, which she was proud to accept given that the day to day on her beat was rather uneventful. Some might have considered that a good thing, but Hester didn't feel as if she was getting her full potential with just responding to noise complaints.
Hester's first goal in Dixie Inn was to get on the good side of the citizens. She figured people might not warm up to a bigger city person mingling with the small town vibe, but she seems to have been accepted for the most part; there are always those who dislike the police, but Hester does what she can to sway opinion.