Ash meets Jane Trevally at St. Pancras and they move to the Standard hotel lounge to await Laura Drummond. Ash feels anxious and hopeful about what Laura will reveal regarding Nick Radcliffe. Jane keeps the mood light with family anecdotes until Laura arrives and agrees to share her story.

Laura explains she met Jonathan as her life coach after he approached her on a Cambridge street, offering discounted sessions. She researched him, found positive reviews, and began sessions. She was quickly drawn to his looks and charm, and after several meetings he asked her out. He claimed a deceased fiancée named Ruth and listened to Laura’s own past hurts. They started a relationship; Laura describes years of apparent happiness in which Jonathan was loving, attentive, and a good father.

Laura then describes a shift: Jonathan began disappearing, claiming an ill mother in the Midlands, turning off his phone, and offering elaborate explanations, including compartmentalization and ADHD. Despite these absences, he remained calm and persuasive at home, keeping Laura invested. Eventually he vanished altogether, leaving only a message saying he could not come back because his mother was “killing” him and signing off with love.

Believing it might be a suicide note, Laura contacted the police, but no action followed. Weeks later, bills and debts totaling £15,000 in her name arrived, revealing a long-running financial scam. Laura recalls additional sums she gave him over years for “business” and even £1,000 to a purported scammed student, which she now believes was fictitious. She moved away from Cambridge in shame.

Four years earlier, Laura was contacted by Emma Greenlaw, whose mother, Tara, had been married to Jonathan Truscott. Emma traced Laura via an archived version of Jonathan’s life-coaching site. Emma told Laura that Tara had followed Jonathan to the Cotswolds with another woman, then to a Tooting flat to confront him. Tara called Emma from the flat; later, texts from Tara claimed reconciliation and then a move to the Algarve with Jonathan. CCTV showed Tara leaving the Tooting flat 20 hours after arrival and boarding a train to Reading, but she was never seen again. Jonathan was recorded moving about locally afterward; the Tooting flat was later found empty, and police dropped their focus on him.

Laura adds that Emma has built a dossier of women connected to Jonathan/Justin/Nick, showing a pattern of unsettling interactions and noting he is a “street stalker” who follows women at close quarters, once reported to police about four years ago, which contributed to Tara’s earlier split from him. Ash and Jane connect the Tooting detail to Nick Radcliffe’s claimed address and realize the relevance.

Ash proposes trapping Nick since he is currently living with Nina. Laura warns them not to underestimate him, emphasizing his ability to stay a step ahead and manipulate people. After Laura leaves, Ash and Jane decide their next steps: contact Emma Greenlaw and then speak to Nina. Jane offers to accompany Ash to talk to Nina; Ash hesitates and says she will think about it.