Investigates cutlery being laid the wrong way (6)
I believe the answer is:
snoops
'investigates' is the definition.
(to snoop is to pry or investigate)
'cutlery being laid the wrong way' is the wordplay.
'cutlery' becomes 'spoon' (spoon is a kind of cutlery).
'being laid' becomes 's' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'the wrong way' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'spoon'+'s'='spoons'
'spoons' back-to-front is 'SNOOPS'.
(Other definitions for snoops that I've seen before include "Sneaks" , "Pries inquisitively using spoons" , "Spies, eavesdroppers" , "Spies, eavesdrops" .)