Bartholomew Beck has a secret.
He saw who killed his neighbor, but he lied to the police and now the wrong man is on Death Row.
Oh, and he wrote a bestselling true-crime book on the murder, further cementing his lies.
Twenty years after Summer Fosterâs death, Beckâs writing career has gone cold. Heâs making ends meet on a Texas oil pipeline when he finds a co-worker beaten to death with a screwdriver sticking out of her right eye â just like Summer.
This time heâll have to come clean with what he knows and Let The Guilty Pay.
âLET THE GUILTY PAY is a cleverly plotted, deftly paced page-turner with complicated, deeply relatable characters. Everyone has a secret, everyone has an agenda, and Rick Treon dispenses the well-earned twists and reveals with the stiletto precision of a master.â â Heather Young, Strand Award-winning and Edgar-nominated author of The Lost Girls and The Distant Dead
Bartholomew Beck has a secret.
He saw who killed his neighbor, but he lied to the police and now the wrong man is on Death Row.
Oh, and he wrote a bestselling true-crime book on the murder, further cementing his lies.
Twenty years after Summer Fosterâs death, Beckâs writing career has gone cold. Heâs making ends meet on a Texas oil pipeline when he finds a co-worker beaten to death with a screwdriver sticking out of her right eye â just like Summer.
This time heâll have to come clean with what he knows and Let The Guilty Pay.
âLET THE GUILTY PAY is a cleverly plotted, deftly paced page-turner with complicated, deeply relatable characters. Everyone has a secret, everyone has an agenda, and Rick Treon dispenses the well-earned twists and reveals with the stiletto precision of a master.â â Heather Young, Strand Award-winning and Edgar-nominated author of The Lost Girls and The Distant Dead
She was in pain, and that was my fault. I always misjudge my strength when Iâm upset.
But the fact that I had her by the elbow while asking what the hell she was doing? That was hers.
âSorry,â I said, softening my grip and my tone. âBut I canât let you walk away.â
She took advantage and jerked free. âSure you can. Just pretend you didnât see anything.â Her eyes narrowed. âWhy were you following me, anyway?â
I didnât want to admit the truth. We were both new to the job and spent most of our breaks talking and smiling at each other. The other pipeliners assumed I was sleeping with the hot girl.
I felt like there was a chance, though, so I kept getting to know Jillian through intelligent discussions during stolen moments. It was a tried-and-true method. I was lonely. She was lonely, too. Thatâs what she told me anyway.
But there were some days when I couldnât get that alone time, when she would lose me among the dozens of other workers, enormous earth-moving machines, and maze of steel pipe. That was the case a few minutes ago, and I shouldnât have cared. But at 3:15 p.m. on the Saturday before Labor Day, Iâd wanted to spend as much time as possible with Jillian before our rare two-day weekend.
Rather than answer her question about my motives, I deďŹected. âIt doesnât matter why I came over hereâI caught you. How long have you been doing this?â
To say I was upset with Jillian would be a massive understatement.
We were weldersâ helpers. As the title suggests, our job was to do the bidding of our welders. Fetch their tools. Bring them water. Clear their pickups of empty beer cans in the morning, then ďŹll their coolers with new eighteen-packs covered in convenience store ice.
Each helper had one welderâI worked for my best friend Jorge, she helped my old friend, Paulâand everything we did affected their reputations.
Thatâs why I was angry. Jillian had just pulled out a cheap battery-operated grinder from the end of a pipe and gashed the rusted steel like a cutter on the inside of his thigh.
Leaving grind marks is one of the worst sins a helper can commit. When we were caught leaving scars, that section of pipe was supposed to be cut out and the ends re-welded to ensure the line didnât have any weak points.
But beyond posing a safety issue, grinding on the pipe could postpone a jobâthe greatest sin of all. Money ďŹows through pipelines, and those who keep companies from their cash arenât pipeliners for long.
Six welds had been cut out the last three weeks, and the bosses were on edge. Jillian and I were the only helpers who hadnât been accused of severe ineptitude. Our welders had no repairs, so the four of us showed up every day in relatively good moods. Everyone else was mad as hell.
âSo what?â Jillian pushed past me and hoofed it toward the rest of the crew. Iâd followed her to the lay-down yard, where ďŹnished sections of pipe waited for inspection and transportation. Everyone else was parked about a hundred yards away, with most taking shelter in their air-conditioned trucks.
I jogged after Jillian and confronted her head-on, grabbing her shoulders.
âI canât let you keep doing this.â I was talking too loudly, so I stepped closer and lowered my voice. âI have to turn you in.â
Her focus shifted to a spot over my left shoulder. I turned around and saw several labor hands and welders walking toward us.
Jillian took advantage of the bad optics. She slapped me across the face and ran a few steps before turning around, hands on her hips and forced tears leaking from the corners of her brown eyes.
âI told you, weâre over.â She pointed at me, continuing to play the distressed damsel. âDonât text or call me again. If you do, so help me Bartholomew Beck, Iâll get you kicked off this fucking job.â
I tried walking toward her, but the crowdâwhich by now was nearly everyoneâbegan closing the gap and yelling at me to back off. Jillian retreated into the mob and found Melissa, a fellow helper and the only other woman on the job, who rushed her toward the collection of jacked-up trucks.
Melissa lowered a tailgate and gave Jillian a boost so she could sit. Welders liked to have their trucks ride as high as possible, despite how hard it was for us helpers to climb inside and retrieve their tools. I watched as Melissa, an ex-Marine who had won several arm wrestling contests against other helpers, gently rubbed Jillianâs back.
Our weld boss, Zak, stepped between me and the rest of the crew and whistled to shut everyone up. âWelders, get a head start on the weekend. Go home with ten. Weâll see yâall on Tuesday.â
I needed to tell Zak what Iâd seen. I stomped toward him, but he held up his right hand.
âI donât know what that was, but it looks bad.â He was calm, but I could tell he was in no mood to hear excuses. âAnd I donât need it on top of the other shit going on around here.â
I opened my mouth, but Zak cut me off. âI donât want to hear anything from either of you until Tuesday. And if you make another scene like that, Iâll run both of you off.â
He didnât let me respond before marching toward his truck, which was being swallowed by dust as a dozen pickups raced for the gate.
I waited for the air to clear and found Jillian. She gave Melissa a quick hug before shutting Paulâs passenger door.
Melissa immediately turned around and marched to Jorgeâs truck. She jumped up into his bed and ďŹipped open her pocketknife, then proceeded to scrape off one of the stickers on the side of his gray welding machine.
Jorge hopped out of the cab and pointed at her. I walked their way but still couldnât hear what they were arguing about. I also couldnât read which decal she was removing, but I knew by its location.
Melissa was attacking the silhouette of a naked woman and the words labeling his rig The Panty Dropper!
THE BITTER SMELL of cheap beer and tomato juice poured from the opening of Jorgeâs can. It was his second chelada. The ďŹrst had gone down in ďŹve long pulls.
I didnât approve of his drinking and driving. But since I rode to work with Jorge every day, I also didnât have a choice. Iâd offered to drive once, telling him it should be part of my duties as his helper, but Jorge was proud of his hunter green truck and the welding machine in its bed. If we were going to crash, it would be his fault and nobody elseâs.
I reached across the cab to turn down the cumbia music. Jorge stopped dancing in his seat. âDude, what the hell?â
âI need to talk to you.â I tried to convey the seriousness with my stare but knocking Jorge off his party pedestal was never easy.
âYou always want to talk.â He paused to take another swig from the tallboy. âYouâre worse than my wife.â
I shook my head, unsure how to get him to listen. âThat ďŹght with Jillian a few minutes ago, it wasnât aboutââ
âIt was about the fact that the hot girl doesnât want to fuck you. Melissa already yelled at me about it. Sheâs scary, bro.â
I clenched my jaw to keep myself on track. âThatâs not why we were arguing.â
âOh yeah? Whatâs the matter then? You canât get it up for her?â He laughed and turned the radio back up.
I muted the music again. âLook, Iâm serious. I caught her leaving grind marks next to a weld. Sheâs been causing all the cutouts and repairs.â
That ďŹnally got his attention.
âHoly shit.â Another, longer drink. âDid she tell you why?â
âNo.â I turned to look out the windshield. âI was trying to talk to her when it all went sideways. And Zak was so pissed he didnât let me tell him.â
âGood. We should handle it ourselves.â
That didnât make any sense. I was new to pipelining and didnât know all the unwritten rules yet, but shouldnât Zak be the ďŹrst to know if someone was sabotaging the job? Jorge read the confusion on my face. âYou know that would come back on me and you, right?â
âHow?â
âThe bosses look at us all like a team. Us two, you, and Jillian. And Paulâs your best friend, so itâs like you vouched for them.â
âNot best friend. Old friend.â I was constantly correcting Jorge on that point. The position of best friend belonged to him. Paul Schuhmacher, on the other hand, was an old high school buddy. Until a wild night in Oklahoma a month or so before the job started, I hadnât heard from him in more than a decade. Paul was a year ahead of me at Hinterbach High and went to Tech on a football scholarship. Then he dropped off the map. At this point, I knew more about Paulâs father, a U.S. congressman from the Texas Hill Country who was constantly in the news.
We told Zak we knew each other, so he paired Paul and Jorge together. Jorge would weld one side of the pipe and Paul the other. That made Paul and Jorge brothers-in-lawâa pipeline term that hadnât made much sense to me. But apparently it meant we were like family, and Jillianâs actions were to be treated as a family matter.
âSo how do we handle it?â I asked.
âWe probably wonât have to do anything. You know what sheâs been up to, so I bet sheâll just stop.â âAnd if she doesnât?â
Jorge shook his can to see if any was left. He was putting it to his lips when I heard a deafening thud. The truck rocked to the right, then lunged like a bull trying to buck us.
When the pickup was safely parked on the side of the county roadâJorge always took the back way home to avoid policeâwe jumped out of the cab. He immediately inspected his side for damage, while I looked back to see what weâd hit.
A deer was sprawled out across both lanes. It was a doe, with at least one broken leg and a slick, heaving chest. My heart sank.
Jorge, as usual, knew what I was thinking. âHey, Iâve been drinking. Forget the deer. We have to get out of here.â
âYou know we canât do that.â The right thing to do was to put the animal out of its misery. âCome help me.â
âIâll drive off and leave you, bro. I swear to God I will.â
âCalm down. Iâm sober, so we can say I was driving if anyone comes along. Just toss out the empties.â
Jorge nodded and got back in the cab. I walked over to the deer and stroked her neck. She kicked violently and let out a hauntingâalmost humanâdeath scream. Though she was breathing, her side was crushed, the light brown hide soaked in blood where a rib had penetrated her ďŹesh.
I turned back expecting to see Jorge. He wasnât there. I called for him again, but all I got in response was a middle ďŹnger from the passenger-side window.
I jogged over. âWhat are you doing? Come help me.â âI canât do it, man. Just get in so we can go.â
We all turn into cowards in some moments. For Jorge, it was here, now, confronting certain death.
I, on the other hand, had known for many years that death didnât faze me.
I was sixteen the ďŹrst time I took a life.
Iâd been riding back to town with Dad after watching my sister run at a track meet. Weâd seen that deer, but he couldnât swerve in time. My job had been to control the buck while my father slit his throat. We then drug him to the ditch, where myriad insects and animals waited to feast on the carcass.
I would have to do both jobs this time. My knife was not sharp enough for the task, and I couldnât get that close to the deer given how much ďŹght sheâd shown. I jumped into Jorgeâs bed and opened the stainless-steel toolbox. After sifting through the grinders and hammers, I emerged with the machete he kept to chip off the teal-colored epoxy that coats underground pipelines.
I tried ineffectively to slow my shallow breathing as I approached. She could sense what was coming and began writhing and screaming louder with each step. She managed to get on two legs but fell, the pain of her broken hind leg and ribs proving too much to bear.
âIâm sorry girl.â I repeated the phrase as I lifted the machete, still trying to reconcile dueling truths. I was about to take the life of another living, sentient being, which is inherently terrible. But I was also putting an end to her suffering, which I knew would continue for hours unless she was hit by another vehicle.
I couldnât look at her while I did it. Iâd never been proďŹcient with hand tools, and my new occupation had only slightly improved that skillset, so I kept swinging at where her neck should be until the screaming stopped.
I only had a moment to think about the life Iâd taken before hearing an oncoming truck. We were still in the middle of the road, so I slid the machete between my belt and jeans like a marauder and drug her body off the blacktop, still asking her for forgiveness.
Let the Guilty Pay is a rarity: a crime novel that feels original and fresh, and that is a fantastic read to boot.
The story follows Bartholomew Beck, a struggling true crime author who is literally and figuratively making ends meet working on an oil pipeline in the Texas Panhandle. He has barely had the chance to familiarize himself with the job when a murder takes place â a murder that threatens to excavate a part of Beck's past that he would prefer stayed buried.
Sometimes a book just gels with you, and feels like it has been written to give you exactly what you want. For me, Let the Guilty Pay was such a book, getting the balance exactly right between giving me enough to stay interested, and hiding enough to stay interesting. The main story takes place over a relatively short span of time in the present day, with occasional glances into what happened 20 years ago. This way of telling the story, of gradually revealing the tapestry of events from several angles, works extraordinarily well.
The precision with which all aspects of this story has been woven together is impressive. Complex characters and storylines that blend into each other across timelines could easily have become very confusing, but were served up so seamlessly that I never needed to stop and think about anything. I was free to stay completely immersed and just read on until I found out what had happened, which is fortunate, as I couldn't put the book down until I had.
The genre of true crime is instrumental to how this story plays out, and one of the most exciting qualities of true crime spills back into the story itself. Most of the tension in this book comes from learning more about what has already happened, rather than about what is going to happen. Every time something new is revealed, the reader has to question their assumptions, and every new nugget of knowledge changes the light in which the whole story is seen.
Let the Guilty Pay is an excellent book, one that I wouldn't hesitate recommending to anyone who wanted a page-turner of a crime novel that's a little different from everything else. It's the kind of book you'll not so much read as inhale. The only downside is that it will leave you wanting more the moment you've finished it.