Article by investigator's about time in hellish place (3,4)
I believe the answer is:
the pits
'hellish place' is the definition.
(the pits can mean a horrible place)
'article by investigator's about time' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'the' (the definite article in English).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'investigator's' becomes 'PI's' (PI is short for private investigator).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'pis' enclosing 't' is 'pits'.
'the'+'pits'='THE PITS'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for the pits that I've seen before include "hell!" , "pants" , "Absolutely worst person possible" , "place in motor-racing?" , "Those places offering a quick tyre change" .)