Swamped

You might as well bluff hard.

"Well, yeah, if I just saw an animal poking around, whatever it was, I'd tell a pest control squad. I mean, I've taken my fair share of repair reports, it's the same thing. But sometimes there's other stuff that needs to be reported, you know? And sometimes you can't tell just anyone about it. Sometimes you see something that's going to mean a big decision, so you've got to tell an officer."

"You made a hell of a choice on which one," Grey grumbles. "What could possibly be so important, anyways..."

"Rider's beast," the fifth member of the squad says. This one's real quiet; you can't recall hearing them talk before at all.

But they've just helped your bluff quite a bit.

"What?" you ask, doing your best to look as if you're downplaying the suggestion. "I don't know what you're getting at."

"Rider's gone missing, but his beast is still around," they continue. "I heard it's been real upset ever since. So who knows what kind of trouble it could be getting into."

"No, that's not it at all," you say, sounding as unconvincing as you can. "But, ah, that is a good example of the sort of thing I'd have to talk to an officer about before going to see pest control."

"I can see that," Grey says, though he sounds a little skeptical. "But if it's just a matter of chasing off Rider's swamp beast, why would you need to consult Dean specifically? Garrett's squad has seniority on us, and they've even got experience dealing with swamp beasts."

"Yeah, that is weird," Greenbags agrees. "Dean's studied lots of animals, but you wouldn't really need that for the swamp beast. Usually when people ask for him, they want an unusual animal identified..."

"Eh, that's enough, Greenbags," Grey sighs. "If he can't tell us, he can't tell us. Guess that's all there is to it."

If you weren't watching Grey carefully, you might have missed it. But he seems just a little too eager to move on from the subject of unusual animals.

However, you said you were leaving and now Grey wants you to leave. So you can't really direct this conversation much more. If you're going to get a better sense of his secret, you'll have to drop something tantalizing in your parting remarks.

So. What should you say?