“That may be,” Dorchester answered, “but their answers are nearly identical to the ones they gave the first time around. Typically, if they weren’t honest they would’ve deviated from their original answers.”
“Unless they were afraid for their lives,” I replied.
“True,” Dorchester and Weston agreed.
The interviews wrapped up early enough that I had time to think about my line of questioning for both Silver and his attorney. Admittedly, the original interview questions for the attorney, Rick Spizer, were pretty basic. It wasn’t that I expected to get a big confession that he helped cover up Nate’s illegal activity from him, but I hoped that I could at least rattle him enough to give us something.
The two men arrived fifteen minutes early, but I made them wait. I wanted them annoyed when the interview began in hopes that they’d let something fly. It worked well in some cases, but I wasn’t holding my breath with these two. One was a well-educated attorney, and the other was… I didn’t yet know, but I had already seen that he didn’t rattle easily.
“We’re going to question you first, Mr. Spizer,” I told the attorney as I led him to the first available interview room. “Then you can be present when we talk to Mr. Silver as he requested.”
“Fine,” Spizer said. Jonathon Silver said nothing as he followed Weston to another interview room down the hall.
I went through the routine of identifying myself and Dorchester for the recording before asking Spizer to state his full name and relation to Nate Turner. “Did Nate Turner tell you he was being harassed and threatened?” I asked, jumping right into the fire once he finished identifying himself for the recording.
“No,” Spizer replied calmly.
“Did Nate Turner involve you in covering up any illegal activities for him?”
“No.” Spizer’s tone remained steady.
“When did you learn that Jonathon Silver existed?” Dorchester asked.
I saw a slight crack in the attorney’s calm. He had to walk a fine line because he represented both the brother who died and the one who was sitting inside an interview room down the hall. He was limited to what he could say without a court order, which no judge would sign off on with the little evidence we found up to that point. I didn’t want to make an enemy of this guy, so I went easy on him.
“I’m not asking you to break confidentiality ethics, counselor. I’m simply asking when you became aware that Nate Turner had a twin brother, not how you found out,” I told him.
“It was June of last year, so around nine months,” he said after a short pause.
“A few months before Nate began receiving threats to his life,” I remarked. Spizer opened his mouth to argue, but I held up my hand to stop him. “Save your comments and defense for when I interview him. Let’s start with why you didn’t feel the need to tell the police about Silver during your first interview.”
“No one asked,” Spizer fired back. “I only answered the questions they asked.”
“Counselor, Detective Jade asked for names of people who might give more information about what was going on in Nate’s life, and you said that you couldn’t provide any. Now, I’m not accusing you of lying, but I feel like you deliberately mislead the investigators.”
“I didn’t mention Jonathon because he tragically lost the brother he’d just found and was in a state of shock.” His answer was asinine.
“Mr. Spizer, let me be frank with you right now. Your actions don’t look like those of an attorney representing a client. If that had been the case, you would’ve notified the police that Nate Turner had a long-lost brother and would’ve asked for some time to let him adjust to the news before the interview or you would’ve made yourself available when he was questioned. You may not have a high opinion of police in general, but we are trained on how to handle bereaved family members.”
It was obvious by the way he stiffened in his chair that he was offended by my admonishment. He was in for a real treat if he thought that was bad. I asked a few more questions that received “no” or “I don’t know” answers before I ended the interview. I hadn’t expected to get much out of Spizer anyway, but I at least found out how long he’d known about Jonathon Silver.
The three of us walked to the interview room where Silver was waiting for us, sipping coffee from the disposable cup like he didn’t have a care in the world. I went through the same routine as I did with Spizer, but went a step further. Even though he wasn’t under arrest, I read Jonathon Silver his Miranda Rights and watched him closely to gauge his reaction. His eyes narrowed, and his jaw tightened hard enough that I expected to hear his teeth crack, which told me he wasn’t happy at all.
“Thank you for coming in today,” I said once I was ready to begin. “Can you please state your full name for the recording and relationship to the victim, Nathaniel Turner.” I saw Silver flinch slightly when I said his brother’s name. The reaction was so minuscule that I would’ve missed it had I not been trained to look for it.
“Jonathon David Silver and Nathaniel Turner is…wasmy brother.” His words faltered a bit toward the end. Earlier that morning in his office, Silver exhibited anger and arrogance, neither of which were present a few hours later. He was more soft-spoken and subdued. Was it genuine or an act in front of the attorney?
“Can you tell us who might’ve wanted to kill your brother?” I asked.
“No,” he said softly. “He told me about the threats, of course, but he said he didn’t know why he was receiving them.”
“Did you believe him?” Dorchester asked from beside me.
Silver released a long frustrated sigh. “Honestly? No. Nate was a very private man and getting to know him had been hard. He was totally shocked to learn he had a twin brother and that he didn’t really know the parents who raised him, so you can imagine that he had some serious trust issues.”
“What do you mean that he didn’t know his adoptive parents very well?” I asked. Silver made it sound like they were shady in some way.
“They never told him about me so he began to wonder what other secrets they might’ve been hiding,” Silver replied.
