detective

noun

1. A police officer tasked with collecting evidence and information in order to solve a crime; an investigator.

   “He worked as a detective with the agency for five years.”

   “The detective kept them in view. He made his way casually along the inside of the shelter until he reached an open scuttle close to where the two men were standing talking. Eavesdropping was not a thing Larard would have practised from choice, but there were times when, in the public interest, he had to do it, and this was one of them.”

2. A person employed to find information not otherwise available to the public.

adj

1. (not-comparable)Employed in detecting.