Then asked whether he would cooperate with an independent review.
Miles agreed.
He didn't immediately become a heroic whistleblower.
He remained frightened.
He worried about losing his job.
He worried about retaliation.
And he worried that investigators would find his evidence insufficient, leaving him trapped in a department where the most powerful people suspected he had betrayed them.
For six weeks, he continued working while documenting what he lawfully observed.
Then Garrett selected him as a partner on the afternoon of my stop.
Miles told investigators that Garrett had received a message shortly before they left the sheriff's substation.
The older deputy read it.
Then smiled.
"Got ourselves something interesting."
Miles asked what he meant.
Garrett answered.
"High-value vehicle coming through our stretch."
Miles assumed it was a stolen-car alert.
He asked whether dispatch had provided a description.
Garrett shook his head.
"Private tip."
The younger deputy asked whether they should confirm it through official channels.
Garrett laughed.
"Stop asking questions, rookie."
They drove west.
A few miles later, Garrett positioned the SUV near a highway entrance.
He watched traffic.
Then the black Rolls-Royce appeared.
Garrett sat upright.
"There she is."
Miles looked toward the car.
"What's the violation?"
Garrett smiled.
"Doesn't matter. We're stopping her."
Miles stared.
"What?"
Garrett activated the patrol lights.
And that was the beginning of everything.
When the investigator asked why Miles hadn't challenged the stop immediately, he looked down.
"I should have."
The investigator waited.
Miles swallowed.
"I thought if I argued before we even approached the car, Garrett would say I was refusing to follow instructions. I told myself I'd check the plate and resolve it quickly."
He paused.
"Then he opened the driver's door."
For several seconds, he couldn't speak.
Finally, he continued.
"I realized he wasn't trying to investigate a stolen car."
The interviewer leaned forward.
"What was he trying to do?"
Miles looked directly at him.
"Get something out of it."
That statement changed the direction of the inquiry.
The investigators already knew Garrett had asked about the black case.
They knew the unauthorized tow truck had arrived.
They knew the company was connected to suspicious equipment shipments.
Now they had evidence that Garrett had been waiting for a specific vehicle before any observed traffic violation.
The question was no longer simply whether he'd abused his authority after making a stop.
It was whether the stop itself had been arranged as part of a larger scheme.
The answer emerged from the phone records.
The private message Garrett received that afternoon came from a number registered to a commercial communications account. Investigators initially could not identify the individual user.
But the account had been used repeatedly to communicate with employees of Westbrook Recovery.