Benjamin Wright

Benjamin Wright, a character in Dirty Little Secrets, is the Mayor of Oak Valley and Valerie's husband. He is first seen in Chapter 5, although he is first mentioned in Chapter 3.

Appearance
Benjamin has short gray hair, gray eyes, and light skin. He wears a black suit with a black vest, a white shirt, and a golden tie and handkerchief.

Personality
When you first meet him, you are stunned by his dismissive attitude towards Valerie's death, and later horrified if you learn he hooked up with Sadie during his wife's wake. According to her black book, Sadie considers him spineless. He is very concerned with his political image, as evidenced by his refusal to divorce Valerie despite not caring for her, and by his public willingness to engage in a friendly husband-versus-wife mayoral election despite his private anger at the idea.

Background
Benjamin has been the Mayor of Oak Valley for a very long time, and he's usually too busy to come to Vermillion Lane events. At some point prior to the story he attempted to start a campaign that would have forced the lower-half out of their homes so that he could destroy them and "beautify" the street, though your Aunt stood in his way.

Dirty Little Secrets

 * Chapter 3: Potluck of Secrets (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 5: In The Wake Of
 * Chapter 6: Sadie's Secrets
 * Chapter 8: F is for Philanthropy (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 10: Sweet Sadie-Anne (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 11: On The Outs (Off-Screen)
 * Chapter 12: The Mayor's Mistress (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
 * Chapter 13: Detective Lawson (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 17: Fires Are Lit (Mentioned; Determinant)
 * Chapter 18: Crimes of Passion (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 20: The Killer Unmasked (Mentioned; Determinant)

Valerie Wright
The two didn't have a good relationship with each other. At Valerie's wake, Benjamin does not even pretend to be upset about her death, and he sneaks off for a rendezvous with Sadie despite the circumstances. If you eavesdrop on that rendezvous, you learn that Benjamin helped Valerie become the HOA president just to give her something to do. However, he hadn't anticipated that she'd gain enough popularity for people to call on her to run against him for mayor, an idea which clearly angers him. You and Carpenter speculate that Benjamin and Sadie's talk of Valerie being a problem for them sounds like potential motive.

Sadie Hotchmitch
During Valerie's wake, you notice Benjamin pull Sadie aside and follow them to listen in. You learn that Benjamin is angry at Sadie for avoiding him and says "the Valerie issue" should have been taken care of a week ago, but concedes Sadie's point that Valerie's death means they have no longer have anything to worry about. If you continue eavesdropping, you learn that the two of them have been having an affair for some time. Sadie kept Valerie from seriously considering the calls for her to enter politics, and in return Benjamin promised his support when Sadie put her own plans in motion. If you snoop in Sadie's black book in Chapter 6, it is revealed that Benjamin believed divorcing Valerie and marrying Sadie would be a political suicide. Sadie found this position so spineless that it disqualified him as a potential husband.

Nina
Nina was Benjamin's other mistress, who considered him to be one of her sugar daddies and called him "Daddy Commander". When you confront her, she tells you that he broke off their relationship and she didn't kill Valerie to be with him, nor does she think he killed Valerie himself.

Trivia

 * His character model resembles Pierce Sterling from Veil of Secrets.
 * Wright comes from the Old English word "wryhta"/"wyrhta" meaning worker or shaper of wood.
 * He and his wife share the same last name as Holly Wright from Home for the Holidays, Devin Wright and Dash Wright from The Princess Swap, and Lewis Wright from Foreign Affairs.
 * His crimes include misappropriation of funds.