Gift of the Gods

As I walking home from the shop this morning, Kim Next Door drove past and waved. By the time I turned the corner, she had parked in her driveway and was standing by her gate, waiting for me.

'Have you found any - ' she began, and I knew what the next words were going to be.

'Golf balls?' I said.

'Yes!'

'Three,' I said. 'On the driveway.'

'We had four yesterday. We found one of them right next to the car. We heard something land on the roof this morning, that'll be number five, so Brian is going to get the ladder out later to check. And he was talking about the golf balls to them over there,' - she waved in the direction of the house across the road, which hasn't had any exterior walls for several years while the owners are renovating it (slowly) - 'and they've had a few, and one actually landed in their garden while Brian was over there. So he's called the police.'

'Him across the road?'

'Yes.' This makes sense. He might be a slow renovator, but he's very keen on maintaining a law-abiding street. A few years back, the small boy on the other side of the Next Doors was annoying half the street by ringing random doorbells and running away. He was caught in the act by the renovator, and marched back to his side of the road to be spoken severely to in the presence of his parents.

I had thought that same boy might be the source of the golf balls, but apparently the trajectory of the one that landed in the garden suggested it came from further down the side street. I now suspect the student rental house, whose residents like to set off illegal fireworks when they hold parties.

So that's the latest on the J Street Golf Ball Mystery.