Read Proof Positive (2006) for Free Online

midtown. Doug's office was on the outskirts of downtown Portland, near the freeway. Doug parked in his office lot at 9:45 and decided to walk to his meeting in hopes that the exercise would help dispel his hangover, but the crosstown walk felt like a trek up Mount Everest. A few blocks from Cochran's office, Doug realized that he was near the place Jacob had listed on his last registration form as his mailing address. Doug detoured a few blocks and discovered that the address was not a residence. It was an office building. But one of the offices was Parole and Probation. Doug checked his notes. The address for Parole and Probation was the address that Cohen had said he'd put on the form because he was living in a car in a vacant lot. Doug bet that someone in the office had seen the letter with the registration form but hadn't known that Jacob was using the office for his mail and had returned it. He thought about going up to the office and asking around, but he was running late for his appointment with Jerry Cochran, so he rushed over to Cochran's office.
    Doug gave the receptionist his name and thumbed through a copy of Sports Illustrated while Cochran finished a phone call. Ten minutes later, a chubby, pear-shaped man with a receding hairline appeared in the waiting area. Doug flipped the magazine onto the end table and stood up.
    Hi, Doug, what's up?
    We have a client in common, Jacob Cohen.
    Don't tell me he's gotten himself in more trouble.
    Looks like it.
    Come on back. Do you want some coffee?
    That sounds great.
    Cochran's medium-size office was at the back of the suite and across the street from a department store. The lawyer's desk was cluttered, and there were files scattered across his credenza. Cochran was as messy as his surroundings. He'd thrown his suit jacket over the back of a chair instead of hanging it up; the top button of his shirt was undone, exposing the top of his undershirt; and his shirttail was out. Doug noticed a nick on his cheek where he'd cut himself while shaving.
    What did Jacob do now? Cochran asked when he was settled in his chair.
    When he was paroled, he was supposed to register as a sex offender. The DA says he didn' t.
    I'm not surprised. I don't think registration is required on Jacob's planet. So, what do you want to know?
    Why don't you tell me about the case you handled?
    It was for assault on and the attempted rape of a prostitute named Janny Rae Rowland, a real piece of work. Jacob was living in a vacant lot over by Queen Anne and Hobart.
    He was back there when he was arrested.
    It wouldn't surprise me. The area is loaded with bars, pawnshops, and vacant stores. It's a haven for drug dealers, low-end prostitutes, and criminals of all types. The lot is big. The side on Hobart is across from a warehouse, but the lot fronts on Queen Anne, where a lot of prostitutes work. Janny Rae had staked out the strip of sidewalk on Queen Anne as her territory.
    Cochran paused. Have you met Jacob yet?
    I was up at the jail, yesterday.
    Okay, then you probably know that he's really got a thing for women. As far as he's concerned, they' re all the spawn of the devil. Anyway, the cops patrol that area all the time and they saw Janny Rae wrestling on the sidewalk with Jacob. From what I gather, it was hard to say who was getting the worst of it. The cops questioned them separately. Janny Rae said that Jacob had propositioned her. According to her, she told him how much a little action would cost and Jacob told her he was broke. She said she didn't give out freebies and that's when, according to Janny Rae, Jacob tried to rape her.
    What did Cohen say?
    Nothing coherent at the scene. The cops said that Jacob was screaming about whores and harlots and quoting the Bible, which I find highly credible. Since Janny Rae was making sense and there were no witnesses, they busted Jacob.
    Were you ever able to get Jacob's side of the story?
    Yeah, he calmed down enough during one of my visits to the jail to give