Jonathan described how an old slight from the early 1990s and a fresh humiliation at Paddy Swann’s restaurant curdled into a fixation. He immersed himself in Paddy’s public persona—websites, cookbooks, and family imagery—wanting both to emulate and destroy the man. He openly owned his motive as vindictive and committed himself to surveilling the Swanns.

While staking out the family, Jonathan discovered Nina Swann meeting a younger man in Folkestone. He photographed them holding hands in a café, then tailed them to a dive bar and saw them enter an upstairs apartment afterward. He later identified the man as Ethan, a forty-one-year-old record-shop employee who lived in a studio above the bar and had a daughter in Romania. Jonathan judged Ethan harshly and allowed that disdain to color his view of Nina.

Jonathan balanced his surveillance with appearances at home, performing ideal husband and father routines for Martha and offering to review her business accounts to insinuate himself into her finances. He admitted his cash flow was tight because spying on the Swanns had displaced his paid companionship work. He left for a week in Porto with a client, Annabel, maintaining lies to Martha about a conference, and anticipated losing Annabel as a client after the trip.

Returning from Porto, Jonathan continued watching the Swanns and, two days after his fifty-fourth birthday in April, observed that Paddy Swann was also having an affair. He identified the partner as Boo, a young front-of-house employee at Paddy’s Whitstable restaurant, and concluded their secret relationship explained her officious behavior.

With evidence that both Nina and Paddy were unfaithful, Jonathan felt he had them “dangling on strings,” positioning himself as puppet master over their seemingly perfect life. He reveled in their risk-taking as an exploitable weakness that advanced his vendetta against Paddy.