Searched sedan car abandoned outside King's Head (9)
I believe the answer is:
ransacked
'searched' is the definition.
(ransacking is a kind of searching)
'sedan car abandoned outside king's head' is the wordplay.
'abandoned' indicates an anagram.
'outside' indicates putting letters inside.
'head' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'kings' is 'k'.
'sedan'+'car'='sedancar'
'sedancar' anagrammed gives 'ransaced'.
'ransaced' going around 'k' is 'RANSACKED'.
(Other definitions for ransacked that I've seen before include "Rifled" , "turned upside down?" , "Pillaged" , "rifle in the past" , "Plundered" .)