Ian Rankin. Standing.. Page 9.

It was hard to tell if Peter Bliss's wheezing had just taken on a different timbre (quality of sound) or whether he has stifling a laugh.

Robison looked down into her lap (the upper part of the legs of a person who is sitting down) and smiled.

The Crown Office (is the independent public prosecution service for Scotland) was setting up (to prepare something for use) a specialist Cold Case Unit for the whole of Scotland. If it scooped up (to get something or gather and remove) their workload, their jobs would be history. The CCU (Cyber Crime Unit) would have at its heart a database of ninety-three cases dating back to the 1940s, including all the ones from the Lothian and Borders (is an area in south-east Scotland consisting of the East Lothian, City of Edinburgh, Midlothian, West Lothian along with the Scottish Borders) police authority.

Money was tight (if money is tight, there is only just enough of it).

There were already mutterings (complaints that are made to only a few people) that dusting off (to prepare something for use, especially after it has not been used for a long time) old unsolveds (that has not been solved) did little but drain cash from current (and more urgent) inquiries in and around the city.

He leapt (to make a large jump or sudden movement) from the desk strode around it and plucked (to remove) a newspaper cutting from the wall, brandishing (to wave something in the air) it for effect.

He paraded the clipping (the piece that has been cut from a newspaper) in front of their faces. 'DNA (a substance that carries genetic information in the cells of the body)… crime-scene analysis… witnesses whose consciences have been gnawing away at (to gradually reduce or spoil something) them.

'We don't always have the resources,' she countered (to react to something with an opposition opinion), 'never mind (something that you say to tell someone that something is not important) the evidence'. Hard to apply DNA tests to anything when the victim's  clothing got lost somewhere down the line (in the future).'