Chapter Twenty-One

Jane visits Natasha’s comfortable Chiswick home. After brief personal catching up, Jane explains the chain of events: the white dog from her woods, the Hampstead house with a mysterious woman, the missing girl, the school sweatshirt, and the online petition that led her to Jessamine Black’s IMDb page.

Natasha describes her friendship with Jessamine from their early London days: intense clubbing, constant boyfriend dramas, and Jessamine’s desperate desire for marriage and children. She recalls Jessamine living in a shared North London flat, being about six years younger than her, and likely having family in Hampstead.

Linking this to Jane’s sighting, both conclude the woman in the Hampstead house could be Jessamine, now around forty. Natasha emphasizes that Jessamine was not exactly nice but had a magnetic pull that made people want to be around her.

Natasha then plays The Bedsitter from a USB stick. Jane studies the young Jessamine on screen—wide-set green eyes, poised presence, sixties-styled wardrobe—and notes her striking, self-possessed aura. Natasha points out her husband Jacob’s appearance in the film and reminisces about styling Jessamine’s character.

Watching the footage solidifies Jane’s working theory: the woman glimpsed in Hampstead matches Jessamine’s age and background, tightening the connection between the missing threads Jane is investigating and Jessamine’s past.