The Muck›Rocky Rivers

The Dog Has Jurisdiction

While Vegas spirals, Rocky Rivers has developments. Larry is handling them.

Art by Ray Zorfold  ·  06/25/26

Back home, the Rocky Rivers Casino parking lot had an unusual evening.

At around dusk, a man known locally as Sketchy Rick was found seated on the curb near the entrance, wound in approximately forty feet of rope from his shoulders to his ankles. He was wearing a gold chain with a dollar sign on it and appeared to be in good spirits. Witnesses say he was smiling the entire time, which several of them found more alarming than the rope.

Standing a few yards away was Larry.

Larry was dressed in a field uniform none of the witnesses had seen before: a green bush hat with a headlamp and a small antenna on top, a cape, cargo trousers and a utility belt carrying at least six pouches and several laminated tags. He was on the phone. He looked concerned. He did not look surprised.

Nobody who was in the parking lot that night can explain what happened, and nobody has tried very hard. The casino's security staff declined to intervene on the grounds that the dog seemed to have things in hand. A valet described Larry's demeanor as procedural.

Bill and Bob were in Las Vegas at the time and learned none of this until much later. When they eventually did, Bob asked Larry where he had got the cape. Larry did not answer.

This is how the town of Rocky Rivers handled the matter, and it has handled it the same way since. Nobody understands the details. Nobody asks. Given what came later, that turned out to be the wisest decision anyone in the story made all summer.