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"I didn't hear you! I run for fitness purposes. That’s what I was doing. When you jumped me, I thought you were robbers."
May raised her mud-streaked eyebrows at that bare-faced lie, deciding not to comment on it further. There were more important things to ask Jacob now.
The yurt, luckily, was a spacious structure and May was impressed by the state-of-the-art setup inside. There was a heater, two laptops, several chargers and cables, an expensive looking camera, a kettle, and a nice-looking sound system. Not bad for an off the grid wildsman’s residence who made his money filming his romantic, down to earth circumstances. Not bad at all, she thought.
"Shall we sit?" May asked, nodding to the raffia mat on the floor near the heater.
They all sat down on the mat, and Owen put the heater on.
"Nice setup," he said, staring meaningfully at Jacob.
He had the grace to look slightly embarrassed. "Look, I am off the grid. More or less. But my stepfather refused to buy solar panels, so I'm connected up to their electricity via an underground cable. Just for the filming."
"And the kettle," May said.
"And the heater," Owen said.
"You can't film well if you're cold," Jacob said angrily. "And I had to be close enough to get signal. Wi-fi in this area is dire. I couldn't educate anyone if I didn't have the ability to get my videos out there. But anyway, what's this about? Why are you even here?"
He looked angry and defiant. His chestnut blond mane was tousled and streaked with mud.
"Because of Chloe," May explained, watching him carefully.
Jacob looked blank. "What about her?" he asked.
"You know she disappeared?"
Now, the hint of a frown creased Jacob's face. "Disappeared? I don't think so. She was just taking time out. That's what her mother said when I called. But her mother also told me not to call again, because right now the relationship between her and her dad needed work, so I didn't call, and I have been worrying about her.”
“You have?” May asked.
“I've messaged her mother a few times, but she hasn't replied."
“Are you and Chloe dating?”
“No, not as such. We were dating. Then we called it quits for a while, and then we started—sort of—getting friendlier again. So, I would call us good friends, for the past couple of months.”
"Why did Chloe’s mother ask you not to call her again?" May said. This was sounding suspicious and irregular. What had really been going on? Cross-legged on the mat, feeling warmed by the blast of the heater, she watched Jacob closely.
"You see, Chloe's mom didn't have issues with me. But she knew Chloe's dad would, because I’m a bit different, and because—well, there were some past issues that she didn’t want him to know about.”
May nodded. Those must be the assault charges, she thought, as Jacob continued.
“And it was complicated because he was her talent manager, so Chloe and her dad needed to keep a working relationship. Chloe's mom said that we should keep things quiet between us. So that's what we did. She was very busy with her modeling assignments, and I was also very busy here. People think being a social media star is easy, but it isn't. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time."
"When's the last time you saw Chloe?" May asked, interrupting what looked like being a long diatribe.
"Like I said, about two weeks ago. She slept over here. We had dinner together."
"Foraged?" May asked.
"No. From the local diner. I called it in to be delivered," Jacob said, shamefaced. "It was just nice. A celebration. With the whole Miss USA thing looking like a reality. But she did tell me she wasn't sure what to do and that she needed to go away and think for a while. She was keen to do Miss USA, but she also had a lot going on here, and she wanted to try and bring her herbal supplement to market. I told her she should focus on that because there would be a demand for it. A few months ago, we did a tutorial on growing plants, and it was one of my best yet."
May remembered that even Chloe's father had admitted that his daughter had green fingers and was good with plants.
"Were there any issues between you and her?"
"No. None at all. Honestly, I don’t know how I can say it more clearly, we were good friends."
