The Conscience
Detective Sergeant Naomi Elise Washington, CPD
Moral Oversight & Street-Level Intelligence
Origin Story: Detective
The Dante Williams Case
Dante Williams grew up in Englewood, same as Naomi. They went to the same elementary school, walked the same blocks. By thirty-four, Dante had become a serial rapist targeting young women in Englewood—girls from his own neighborhood, girls nobody with power cared about. Naomi built the case herself over eighteen months. She convinced three victims to testify—an almost impossible task. She documented Dante's pattern, his methods, his escalation. DNA evidence. Witness statements. A confession recorded on tape. The case was airtight. The trial lasted four days.
On day two, one witness recanted—her mother's house had been firebombed. On day three, DNA evidence was challenged on chain-of-custody grounds. On day four, the judge ruled the recorded confession inadmissible. Dante Williams walked out of the courthouse a free man. He smiled at Naomi on his way out. That night, he found the third victim—the one who hadn't recanted, the brave one—and beat her so badly she lost sight in one eye. The attack couldn't be directly linked to Dante. He had an alibi. Naomi sat in her car outside the hospital where nineteen-year-old Keisha Morris was recovering from reconstructive surgery. She sat there for three hours, thinking about every legal option, every procedural avenue, every legitimate path to justice. There were none. She thought about going to Dante's house herself. She knew she could do it. She didn't—because she was a cop, because the badge meant something. But God, she wanted to.
This experience transformed Detective and led them to join the Grey Area team.
The Mind Behind the Mission
Growing up in Englewood and fighting in cages burned the fear out of her. She's not reckless—she's just genuinely unafraid. She's walked through the worst neighborhoods in America, faced down gang leaders, and taken punches from women trying to knock her unconscious. Normal threats don't register.
Becoming like Marcus. Letting rage consume her until she's just another product of Englewood's violence.
Key Traits
Fearless
Righteous
Loyal
Haunted
Naomi is The Conscience because she still believes. That's her role on the team—to ask the hard questions, to push back when things go too far, to make sure they remain justice and don't become vengeance. But she's also the one with the most direct experience of violence. She's seen what happens when predators walk free. She's been in cages where the only rule was survival. Part of her—a part she doesn't like to acknowledge—enjoys the work. Enjoys knowing that the monsters who escaped the system won't escape the team. She has to reconcile those two truths: the believer and the warrior. The conscience and the enforcer.
Known Associates
Signature Elements: Detective
Tell
Cracks her knuckles when she's thinking. Old habit from fighting—preparing her hands for impact.
Habit
Never sits with her back to the door. Englewood survival instinct, reinforced by cop training.
Behavior
Speaks directly, economically. Doesn't waste words. South Side directness—say what you mean, mean what you say.
Tell
When she's assessing someone, she goes very still. Fighters call it "reading"—watching for tells, patterns, openings. She does it automatically now, in every conversation.
Ritual
Works out every day. Running, bag work, grappling. If she misses a day, she gets irritable. The gym is her church.
Ritual
Keeps a photo of June on her desk at work. Never talks about him. But it's always there.
Ritual
Goes to church on Easter and Christmas with Denise and the kids. Doesn't believe anymore—not really—but she goes anyway. It matters to her sister. And it connects her to her mother, who never missed a Sunday.
Ritual
Visits Marcus in Stateville every six months. Brings him books. Tells him about her cases, leaving out the parts that would worry him. He's still her brother. He's still family. She doesn't abandon family.
Key Moments: Detective
Words from Detective
I grew up four blocks from where H.H. Holmes built his Murder Castle. A hundred years before I was born, a monster stood on my corner and killed people for sport. Englewood's been swallowing people my whole life—my brother, my neighbors, kids I grew up with. The system didn't save any of them. So I became the system. And when the system fails, I become something else.
