gumshoe

noun

1. A sneaker or rubber overshoe.
2. (slang)A detective.

   “"Who's this gumshoe guy from the bush league tailin' us?"”

   “So how does Santa go up and down chimneys and keep his clothes clean? MAIRE NIC SUIBHNE and her junior gumshoes get their claws into assorted Messrs Claus and come up with an answer . . .”

verb

1. (slang)To act as a detective.

   “The next thing they did was to send a man sent down there from Baltimore and he spent a good deal of time gumshoeing around in that county trying to get another individual put in as secretary-treasurer.”

   “But these days, more and more women are gumshoeing through the pages of murder mysteries.”