Prompt from Ennui Enigma: A snowy puzzle. I may have gone a little off track with this one, but I had fun!
"Holmes," Watson groaned, having just been dragged from his warm bed out into the cold. "Must we do this today?"
"You must practice if you want to improve, Watson," Holmes said sharply. "Even if you never reach my level, deduction is still a useful skill to have, and people passing by make for excellent practice material."
Watson sighed, already resigned to the fact that he would not be able to go back to bed.
Holmes gestured to a man just coming out of a cab across the street. "He'll make a puzzle for you."
Watson looked at the man, then smiled slightly. "Very well. He's around my age, also a doctor, and owns a current practice in Kensington, where he's been for… around five years, I should say. He's married, with two children, and a pet dog. Doesn't like to travel, has a fondness for cigarettes, and," he leaned forwards, as though trying to ascertain a particular detail, "has a tattoo on his left ankle."
He turned to Holmes, who looked absolutely shocked, and grinned. "I think that's enough improvement for today. I'm going back to bed!"
As he made his way back up the stairs, leaving Holmes staring after him, he vowed that next time he wrote to his old classmate James Bridgens, he'd thank him for coming to town today!