The vampire book two, p.44
The Vampire Book Two, page 44
“It was about two years after James and I had both started when Matthew joined the firm; he had been recruited from within the family. His son Sean was in grade school and there was another child on the way; Matthew was just starting his graduate degree. Alton had already been working in the company several years by then. Their family blood ties are a little murky to me: Alton is related by marriage, but he was also a...third cousin, I believe, to Matthew...? Not really sure. There is Genier blood there somewhere, but it may be spread rather thin among those two.
“It seemed Matthew was eager to prove himself to his family and to establish his usefulness to them. Very eager.
“James disliked Matthew, and Alton, right from the beginning, and I guess the negative feelings were mutual. I learned from Augere that he distrusted both Alton and Matthew from the start as well. So there was surprise when James gave both Alton and Matthew key roles in the company.”
“Why would he do that?” Jason thought that seemed out of character for James especially under those circumstances, and with the loyalty he felt toward Augere.
“It did seem rather appalling at first. It was already suspected that Alton was part of that faction that disapproved of Augere. He generally kept his thoughts on the subject to himself though. But he and Matthew were close. It began to appear that whatever their view, it was a shared one.
“James’s decision was pretty shrewd, when you consider it further. There is the now well-known adage: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. He decided that if Alton and Matthew had become the latest vanguard of the disapproving faction, he wanted them right where he could see them and know what they were up to.” Terrance paused a few moments. “I’m wondering now if maybe over the years James and the others had let their guard down. Because they should not have. Certainly not after what Matthew did.”
“I can’t wait to hear this.”
“A few years after he started with the firm, Matthew approached Paul, James’s father, who as I said still had an active but behind the scenes role in the company, with a request. Paul now deferred the bigger decisions to James, and remained as consultant. It was surmised that Matthew had quietly approached Paul, because neither James nor Allen, who had completed his law degree by then and had started working alongside James, would ever have approved his request. And it was no secret that Paul had not gotten along with Augere to begin with, so perhaps Matthew saw Paul as something of an ally. And Paul had direct access to the Archives.
“Matthew explained to Paul that there had never been any kind of psychological profile done on Augere, and he managed to convince him that it might be a good idea to have one. He said that for some course work he had to do an ‘anonymous’ psychological profile to turn in. He asked Paul if he might have access to some of the Archives so he could do an assessment on Augere and ‘kill two birds’ etc. He surmised that Augere himself would not agree to co-operate with the request. In those days the Archives were still a huge deal, like they are today, and though closely and tightly guarded they weren’t yet as ‘Tower Jewels’ protected as they are now.
“Later, Paul was to say that he only did it “to shut Matt up” and he said he told Matthew that when it was done the report was to go directly to James, ‘who would know exactly what to do with it.’ By which he meant, as he was to say later, ‘bury it in the private family Archives.’”
“Wait—so new, separate archive documents would be created to go with the original archive contents then?”
“Actually, there are, and have always been, the official Archives, which pertain more specifically to Augere, and then an even more private Archives version, containing personal family details as well as commentary and opinions etc. The latter are maintained just for Genier’s eyes only. Augere doesn’t know—or isn’t supposed to know—hah!—about those very private ones, only the ‘official ones.’ They won’t let Augere anywhere near either of those Archives however, because—”
“The originals, you mean?”
“Yes, the original, official ones. Augere has very strong opinions about those, even though he has not read them. He has threatened to destroy any and all of those documents.
“It has been supposed that perhaps Matthew may have had a negative, or at least a low opinion of Augere at the onset. This may have been helped along by Alton, who by all accounts could be a malicious sneaky bastard—and those are the most flattering of the comments I have heard—given to finding fault with everything that James and Allen did. And you know—” Terrance paused for a moment. “—though I’ve only met the two of them a few times, and just briefly, I’ve never felt as if they were truly Genier...”
“I felt the same way about them.” Jason said.
“Alton resented that the two brothers supported Augere right from the beginning. Alton had been with the company before they came along, and had been hoping for a leadership who held his own views, and presumably views similar to Paul’s. It was a bitter disappointment to him when he got James and Allen instead.”
“Fortunate for Mr. Augere though.” Jason commented.
“Yes, exactly. For approximately three months or so, with no one’s knowledge except Paul’s, Matthew had access to a portion of the Archives, but not, thankfully, more than a few scattered decades worth. Perhaps Matthew’s already low opinion of Augere had gotten worse after perusing some of the very old entries. There was still a lot of distrust back then on both sides, some of it still stemming from the earliest days of the agreement. Then again it might have been his agenda all along to paint as negative a view of Augere as possible to persuade other family to turn against him. We might never know.
“Because the Geniers wanted as accurate a picture of Augere’s life and circumstances as possible, the early Archives were not always flattering to Augere. Over time he had on occasion shared very private and personal information, which he later regretted, after he learned that the Geniers recorded everything. Mainly because of this incident with Matthew, the original agreement has since been amended to include that the Archives were not to be used against Augere under any circumstances; this stipulation had to be strictly adhered to just as Augere had agreed not to harm any member of the Genier family.
“As the years went on the Archives were increasingly viewed as private and privileged documents that should have very limited access. You can imagine why the Archives, with personal details included about his life, are a very touchy subject with Augere. My advice to you would be to avoid any mention of them to him. Ever.”
“Yeah, I already got that message. Pretty clearly.”
“Yes...well, one day several months after Matthew had gotten those Archive pages, Paul casually happened to ask James if he had ever gotten that analysis and the Archive documents back from Matthew. Of course James had no idea what his father was talking about, but he would say later that at the mention of the combination of the words ‘Archives, Matthew, analysis, and Augere’ he instantly felt ill. He demanded to know exactly what was going on. He said that he immediately began to feel responsible for letting something bad happen that he had had no direct knowledge of. Paul called Matthew and told him he must turn in every document he had, as well as the analysis, to James on that same day. It seems Matthew got highly nervous; he was supposed to bring all the documents to James that same night, deliver them right to his house, but for some reason he didn’t make it there; instead he took his report and the documents to the Genier’s offices the next day.
“Are you still keeping up with me?” Terrance asked.
“Grasping every word.” Jason assured him.
“The secretary in the Genier offices in those days, was as I recall, a lovely person. I remember hearing the details of what had happened and I can still recollect them clearly: Matthew came in and handed her a thick tan envelope and told her: ‘I’m leaving this with James. It is Mr. Augere’s report.’ His exact wording was just ambiguous enough to cause the problems that would come later. It is supposed that he did not want to face the almost certain wrath of James, and have to explain himself, and so he came in when supposedly he knew that James was not going to be there. The envelope only had Augere’s name on it, not James’s, and that was to be a significant detail later on.
“In those days Augere and I lived in London, but he happened to be visiting in New Orleans alone at that time. On his way to the airport to fly back to London he stopped at the Genier’s offices to pick up some documents from James and some London theater tickets that Genier had gotten and left for him.“
Terrance paused. “You probably can’t believe that I remember this much detail, but it was an incident that none of us were ever likely to forget.
“The secretary handed Augere the small stack of items he had come for and then she asked ‘are you picking up this envelope that Matthew left also? It has your name on it.’ Augere, ever quick-minded, saw an opportunity even if he did not yet know the meaning of it, and said ‘yes, I am.’ He was immediately suspicious of anything Matthew had a hand in, especially if his name was on it. He took all the items and left for the airport.
“When James returned to the office a short while later he learned what had happened. The poor secretary was beside herself when she realized what she had mistakenly and innocently done. As I recall, she did not get fired but she left on her own soon after that, too distraught over the incident.
“I think James handled it expertly, especially under the circumstances. He first called Matthew and demanded copies, notes, a verbal report—anything and everything that would tell him exactly what Augere was about to read in that analysis. That was when he found out that Augere now had in his possession some actual pages of the Archives as well, not just copies. Luckily they did still have copies of those same original pages, because, as it turned out, Augere burned those originals after he read them. The Geniers didn’t so much mind Augere reading them, but they at least wanted to know in advance what he was going to read, because they knew some of it might upset him. And they really did not want any of those documents, which they considered priceless, to be destroyed. Going off on a tangent here but that is one of the reasons Augere will not accept copies from the Geniers: he thinks that he will get a filtered view with things omitted instead of what they actually have recorded about him. But to continue: without even having a chance to read all there was first, James immediately called me in London to warn me what had happened, that Augere was en route home and that he was likely to be furious because he had mistakenly been handed some things that he had not been meant to read. I’ll never forget that James thought to be concerned for my safety; that he was looking out for me. I needed to be aware that there could be fallout and I could get caught in Augere’s inevitable anger.
“James, who apparently had always had trouble standing up to his father, took action right away. He called his father, absolutely furious at what he had done and demanded that he contact Augere personally and take full responsibility for what had happened. He insisted that Paul himself needed to go to London and smooth this over with Augere. To everyone’s great surprise Paul did agree to do that. It was a huge gesture on his part, but nothing less would do.”
“I can just imagine. Did he agree to do that because he really felt that bad about it...or because it was technically his fault?” Jason asked.
“The consensus was that he realized he had probably put the entire agreement between the Genier family and Augere at risk. And all because of something stupid and preventable, not some unforeseen thing that they had no control over. Paul did not want to end his career being the one who had done something so wrong that it had cost both sides their share of the original Ledet inheritance, which was by then considerable, as well as most of what they had all worked hard to achieve together in the years since which had added further value to that fortune. He knew he had to fix this.”
“Do you really think the whole agreement could have ended right then?” Jason was surprised to hear that an earlier version of this newest drama had nearly played out once before.
“I believe it could have. So did others, I’ve since learned. Augere felt betrayed. He felt as if he had been set up by Paul and by Matthew. Matthew had been able to gather privileged information that could be used against him; the agreement was not yet in place then to ensure that this could not happen so the threat of using information for harm was very real to Augere at that point. There had been private and painful experiences in Augere’s life that he did not want shared with just anyone, least of all Matthew, whom he disliked from the start and later came to detest. Some of that very personal information had been given freely to Matthew in those Archive pages and then had been maliciously interpreted by him.
“And then upon learning that the whole report was to be turned over to James made it seem as if James was part of a conspiracy against him. Augere liked James from the start; he had been looking forward to a peaceful working relationship with a Genier family member who seemed to understand him, and he had found that in James. Now it was all a total mess, with James seeming to be in on the whole scheme. There was no way any of them could continue on as before. It really was as if the whole thing had been planned to cause as much damage as possible, and if not bring down Augere directly, then ending the agreement between him and the Geniers in the bargain.
“Damn...all very dramatic events...well, of course, that did not happen though...not then...the agreement was preserved... and did Paul Genier actually go to London and fix things with Augere? I guess he must have...”
“Yes. Well, but first I should say that Augere usually displays a very cold, controlled anger. I have learned that for myself. He could be seething with rage and you might not even tell. In those days in London we did not have close neighbors in the lane where we lived; yet people far down the road called the police to report a disturbance. That is how bad it was. Augere was many shades of livid. Things got...broken. Neighbors responded to the noise. I had to act as go between with the police, assuring them that all was under control—when I myself absolutely felt that it was not at all under control—and so I stated that he had just gotten some bad news and he would be okay. Somehow that worked to keep the authorities out of it. I left the house after they were gone. I just could not stay near him. I felt really unsafe—and I had done nothing wrong!
“Paul Genier did call and he spoke to Augere. I have no idea what was said. I barely saw Augere after the incident, not for several weeks at least. Paul did come to London also, but it was fully a month later, when he felt that Augere could be calm enough then to listen to him. Again, I have no idea what was said. It is probably all recorded in the private Archives, which we will never see. Slowly and eventually things got back to as normal as they could ever be.
“But everyone knew: the frosty animosity was evident, even if not openly expressed. And each day that Matthew, and then Alton too, with his snide remarks and his condescending attitude—each day they drew breath seemed a personal gift from Augere, one he was loath to bestow on them. But still, they were Genier, and so they had protection from Augere.”
“And now they are kicked out of the company...that really shocked me...well, for a moment there I, and I think others in the room too, thought Augere was going to attack them right then and there... Do you believe they are permanently shut out now?”
“That was a given on that day. Now they will have to fight just to remain a part of their own family.” Terrance’s words echoed Remy’s.
“Do you mean they could actually be disowned from their family—?”
“Disowned. Yes. Theirs is a family whose foundation is based on loyalty and a shared
commitment to the family’s goals. So if anyone of them goes against others in the family, especially in such an egregious manner as this, it is just devastating to them. I’m not saying that disagreements aren’t allowed. But in this particular case it appears the transgressors can expect the most extreme penalty. I’m guessing, and, take this only as my opinion, this is what Augere has wanted all along. To see them separated from the herd.”
“Like I said it did appear to me as if Mr. Augere was the one who actually fired them. Not in so many words. But as if he had a clear right to fire Genier family from their own firm. And does he really have the right to do that? Though I certainly wouldn’t say that I could blame him for doing that...”
“He was basically issuing an ultimatum. I believe he was telling the Geniers that it was time to clean their house and he was making it clear—that either they go or the agreement does. Augere knows very well the sentiments held by James and Allen. Neither of them would be sad to see the three accused go. Matthew and Alton mostly kept a low profile, avoiding Augere as much as possible. Alton was the only one who was often required to attend the meetings, but Sean did go too, sometimes. Even at family gatherings if Augere was present, you would rarely see those three in attendance too. Sean might have attended by himself, because he has cousins his age to mingle with and, I suppose, there may have been less personal animosity where Sean was concerned.
“I think Augere has let them go on, biding his time, giving them enough rope and letting them think they were getting away with something. Only to have this day finally come. I think he must have personally requested that the three of them be present at that meeting. It would have been very rare for the three of them to just happen to be there. I feel sure he walked in that room knowing the outcome in advance. It seems he even had some written instructions ready to pass to James.”
Jason remembered seeing something of that, the notes passing between them. “So you think the Geniers would actually let that happen? They would see members of their family forced out?”
“I cannot say that for certain, but I do believe so. And once the evidence is presented the accused can speak in their defense and others may speak for or against them too. And then the whole matter will be put to a family vote. But I am assured it does not look good for them.”
