BUSINESS MOGUL FOUND DEAD IN LIKELY SUICIDE

Amery Hollingsworth Jr., chief executive and board chairman of Renatus, LLC, was pronounced dead at Surgeon’s Hospital just after 4 p.m. this afternoon. He was the oldest son of embattled former Disney executive Amery Hollingsworth.

A staff member found the 57-year-old unresponsive in his Westwood home early Thursday morning, according to law enforcement officials.

Sources who wished to remain anonymous due to the ongoing investigation reported the cause of death as self-inflicted asphyxiation. A full medical examiner’s report is expected within three weeks.

The elder Hollingsworth died in 1955 after falling from a balcony, which news sources at the time reported as a suicide. The financially troubled business executive engaged in numerous failed legal battles with the Walt Disney Company for more than a decade before his death. Those efforts, which sought to clear his name and reputation, led to repeated bankruptcies in the early 1950s.

Hollingsworth Jr. is survived by his brothers, Rexx and Ezekiel. There will be no service. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations be sent to the Save All Children Foundation in Hollingsworth Jr.’s name.

Joe reread the obituary three times. His office door was closed, his right leg bouncing rapidly, causing a spring in his office chair to repeatedly squeal.

It had been more than thirty hours since Joe had slept. In that time, he’d visited Zeke Hollingsworth at the area hospital where he was being treated for dehydration, interviewed four Fairlies, who’d been caught dragging an adult backstage, spoken with local police and Disney security, and sat in on a conference call with Baltimore police, who’d raided the Barracks facility based on his testimony. He looked as exhausted as he felt.

Mattie was asleep on his office couch in Burbank, as she had been for the past fourteen hours straight. She’d refused medical attention; the doctors said she’d be fine with rest.

He looked over at her, sleeping peacefully, and wondered what might have happened had he managed to grab hold of her ankle.

Some things were meant to be, he thought, closing his eyes and fighting off the temptation to sleep.

Joe’s worry now, as it had been for some time, was the safe return of the Keepers, and of Amanda and Jess. Presently, he had no way to judge if Amery Jr.’s death would affect the creation and eventual rise of the Overtakers.

Joe frowned, searched for another name. It should be five, not four, Kingdom Keepers. He was sure of it. But he failed to find the name he sought. He must have dreamed the fifth.

Mattie snorted and woke, her eyes coming open abruptly. “Good grief. I feel like lunch meat left in the sun. How’d I get here?”

“Do you remember the Matterhorn at all? You were turned over to my care. They told me the bump to your head might cause some fuzziness.”

“Fuzzy? I hurt like someone used me for a punching bag.”

“Tell me what you remember.”

Mattie walked Joe through everything she could recall about the meeting in the Tower, the Fairlies’ leader’s decision, speaking to Teresa, the train, the fireworks, the attack.

“The Fairlies went after the Barracks adults pretty violently,” Joe said, watching her with tired eyes. “Only a few Fairlies were caught.”

“Thank goodness.”

“That’s what you say.”

“They’ve been through too much, for too long. They could use a safe place to live for a while. Without strings.”

“I understand what you’re suggesting, but I don’t see how I could get word to them, to say we might shelter them.”

“I can,” Mattie said. “You find them a safe place, and I can get the word out.”

Joe nodded. Scribbled a note. Looked up and met her eyes.

“And you? I owe you more than I can ever repay, Mattie, including an apology. This company, every guest from here on out, thanks you. If there are parks going forward, that’s thanks to you, too.”

Mattie sat up and locked eyes with him. She felt undeserving of the praise in so many ways. She’d reacted defiantly. Uncooperatively. She’d disobeyed and gone rogue. If she’d failed, she could only imagine how Disney would be treating her.

“I want to be a Kingdom Keeper,” she said. “That’s what you can do for me. Amanda and Jess, too. Maybe Nick. Maybe some of the other Fairlies, if they agree. An army of us. Why not? I want to mean something, Joe, to make a difference like Maybeck, Charlene, Willa, Philby, and…”

“What is it?”

“A name. I can’t remember…Never mind. It’s nothing.”

“So you’re obviously thinking there’s still a reason for the Keepers to exist. Why is that?”

“I don’t know exactly. A hunch?” Mattie twisted her hands together, stared off into space. “But now that you mention it…do you think it’s over? Really over?”

“It depends on whether or not the Keepers return, and what happened while they were back there.”

“Do you think changing the past changes the future?” Mattie’s eyes were wide and surprisingly earnest. “Or is everything that happens going to find a way to happen no matter what we do? Like water running downhill: you can put stuff in its way, but it’s just going to run around it.”

“Interesting.” Joe looked up at the ceiling. There was nothing there but lost time and wishful thinking, random ideas stuck like pencils flung by aimless boys.

“That’s all you’ve got?” Mattie sat up farther. Her whole body hurt. “Your take on whether the past changes the future is ‘interesting’?”

“Philosophy can wait, Mattie. We’ll never know the answer to that, not until they come back. If they come back.”