Managed to get detectives to reveal rank (6)
I believe the answer is:
rancid
'rank' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'managed to get detectives' is the wordplay.
'managed' becomes 'ran' (I've seen this before).
'to get' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'detectives' becomes 'cid'.
'ran'+'cid'='RANCID'
'to reveal' is the link.
(Other definitions for rancid that I've seen before include "Rank-smelling." , "(Of fat/oil) stale and foul smelling" , "Like fat that's gone off" , "Sour - smelling bad" , "Putrid" .)