"Thank you, sir (Jones)! I'll prove you right; just you wait!" - Andrew Bontemps
Biographical information
Full Name: Andrew Bontemps
Gender: Transgender (female to male)
Sexuality: Pansexual
Status: Deceased
Age: 27 (season 3)
Birth: 1989
Race: Human
Cause of Death: Shot in the heart
Nationality: American
Origin: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Residence:
* Concordia, USA
* Grimsborough, USA (formerly)
* New Orleans, Louisiana, USA (formerly)
Profession(s): Police Officer
Family: Issac Bontemps (ancestor)
Partner(s): Reese Rochester (partner)
Affiliation(s):
* Concordia Police Department
* Flying Squad Preservation Society
* Grimsborough Police Department (formerly)
Profile
Height: 5'11"
Age: 27 (season 3)
Weight: 183lbs
Eyes: black
Blood: O+
Andrew was a young African-American man with short, curly black hair, a matching beard, and black eyes. At the time of his death, he wore a crimson-and-black suit over a white long-sleeved shirt with a blue patterned necktie, black dress pants, and polished black shoes. He also had a golden monocle on his left eye, and a golden pocket watch was tucked into his vest pocket.
When working for the Grimsborough PD, he wore a standard police uniform.
As per his suspect appearance in Worst of Wives and Worst of Women, it is known that Andrew exercised.
Synopsis
Andrew was the victim in Murder From The Past.
Before appearing as a victim, he was a suspect in the murder of Renée Murphy. He was a rookie officer in the GBPD with dreams of one day moving to Concordia to become a detective like his ancestor Issac Bontemps. He first met Renée when he responded to a call about a domestic disturbance at Adalet's house. He found the Lieutenant and Will trying to get Renée to leave, but the woman was drunk and wouldn't listen. Andrew eventually managed to get her into his squad car with Adalet's help and brought Renée back to her hotel room after Adalet chose not to press charges.
The second time Andrew dealt with Renée was after he responded to reports of her trespassing on private property in Maple Heights. The owners of the properties denied knowing the woman and wanted her arrested. But Renée tried to buy her way out of the charges, writing Andrew a $10,000 cheque to look the other way.
But Andrew refused to accept the bribe and began the process of charging Renée for her crimes. But the woman would never serve any time for trespassing as she would be killed before Andrew could lock her up. Andrew was happy to see justice being served but was sad that Adalet lost two of her loved ones because of it, even if her "mother" was an absolute bitch.
During the additional investigation for that case, Chief King ordered Jones and John to make sure Andrew hadn't accepted any other bribes. Andrew admitted that Renée had sent him another cheque for $10,000 but claimed he left it on Adalet's desk for her to deal with. After finding the cheque and having Alex analyze it, they discovered that Andrew had cashed it into the GBPD's account as a donation from Renée. Andrew thought if the woman was willing to pay the police to try and escape prison, his station might as well benefit from the money. It was later transferred into the GBPD's funding for the local children's charity drive.
Jumping forward a couple of years, Andrew had moved to Concordia and was on his way to becoming a detective. Before moving, he met Reese Rochester through an online dating site. The two hit it off, and sparks flew as they bonded over shared interests and different ones. When Andrew arrived at Concordia, Reese was there to greet him at the airport with a welcome sign and hug.
After settling into his new life, Andrew decided to join Concordia's Flying Squad Preservation Society. He had always been fascinated by his family history with the Squad and wanted to do his part to keep their memory alive. That is why he volunteered for the Flying Squad Museum Committee and worked alongside other descendants and historical experts to create a museum aboard the Flying Squad's airship.
Of course, nothing could ever go smoothly, and countless problems arose during the months the committee worked on the museum. But they worked together to overcome the challenges and see their vision come to life. Sadly, Andrew wouldn't live to see that vision become complete; he was murdered aboard the very airship they were working to convert into a museum.
In the weeks leading to his death, Andrew accidentally annoyed a few of his fellow committee members. First, he lost the order form for Alessia Dupont's supplies for her inventions, delaying her work. But he made it up to her by getting the shipment expedited, so she got it ahead of schedule.
Then, he knocked over Orlando's glass of wine when delivering some rolls of fabric to the designer. The wine stained the newly finished trench coat and caused Orlando to have to remake that section of the jacket. With so much pressure on the man to complete the replicas in time, Andrew decided to keep his distance to avoid further damage.
Lastly, when Andrew was babysitting Sara for Flora, he turned away for a second, giving the little girl enough time to dunk one of her mother's figurines in a jar of red paint. Andrew tried to clean up the doll before Flora got home, but it was impossible to get the paint off. Flora was already very stressed, so after yelling at Andrew, she ordered him to leave before anything else got ruined.
His friends would later apologize for getting angry at him, and Andrew would forgive them, knowing that all the stress they were under was what caused them to snap.
Outside of the committee, Andrew faced a couple more issues. The first was when he discovered that his partner, Reese, wanted to propose to him. He was pleasantly surprised when he found the ring they had gotten for him, but he told them he wasn't sure if he was ready for marriage. Reese respected his choice and promised to wait until he was ready to formally ask him to marry them.
The other problem he ran into was when Justine Dawson submitted a request to have one of her ancestors featured in the Flying Squad's museum. He denied the request because that ancestor had done horrible things when he was alive, and he wasn't even a member of the Flying Squad! While some non-members were featured in aspects of the museum, none of them had exhibits dedicated to them; those were reserved for official members only.
It would be this last altercation that would lead to Andrew's death. Justine was furious at him denying her request, believing her family deserved to be honoured for their work on Concordia. Her rage was heightened by the fact that Issac Bontemps had killed her ancestor, and she hated how the Flying Squad, their families, and their descendants got to live happily ever after while hers had to suffer shame and ridicule. She vowed to avenge her family's honour and get revenge for her ancestor's untimely death.
So, Justine stalked Andrew for weeks to learn his habits and schedule to find the perfect time and place to kill him. And that place would be aboard the airship. She snuck in after him and drew her weapon. Andrew pleaded for her not to kill him, but Justine refused to listen. She pulled the trigger, killing him with the same gun that Issac had used to kill her ancestor.
Andrew couldn't believe Justine would kill him over an old family feud and a one-sided rivalry at that! But he was happy to see justice being served for his murder and Justine imprisoned for life. Maybe it was selfish of him to be happy to see her get sent to rot in prison, but she did the crime, so now she needed to do the time.
And while Justine spent the rest of her life in prison, Andrew would spend his time in the afterlife, finally able to meet the ancestor and Flying Squad he had heard so much about.
Organization(s)
GBPD (formerly)
Rank: Officer
Concordian PD
Rank: Officer
Story Information
First appeared: Worst of Wives and Worst of Women
Trivia
* When I first gave him the surname Bontemps, it was out of laziness. But after I realized I could use him and others as characters in the case Murder From The Past, I made him a descendant of Issac Bontemps
* I haven't decided how he is a descendant of Issac yet; hopefully, I remember to do that while writing season 4!
* I picked the name Andrew because I know a set of twins named Issac and Andrew, so I associate the names together