A Hotel for the Fair
- Holmes' wants to turn his building into a hotel for visitors to the fair. In other words, he plans to open the nation's first Airbnb.
- He envisions his hotel being "just comfortable enough and cheap enough to lure a certain kind of clientele and convincing enough to justify a large fire insurance policy" (1.7.1).
- Wait—why fire insurance? Well, he reveals that after the fair he intends to burn the building to the ground and collect the insurance. Plus, a fire will destroy any material left over from the building's hidden storage chambers (let's face it: he wants no evidence that could possibly incriminate him).
- In the middle of all this crazy hotel planning, Myrta's rich great-uncle Jonathan Belknap decides to visit. Holmes convinces him to sign a check for $2,500 (well that was easy).
- Belknap thinks Holmes is charming and gracious, but he also finds there's something about the dude just doesn't sit right with him.
- Holmes asks Belknap to sign a second check, but this time he says no.
- Holmes invites Belknap to visit his hotel so he can show him the roof. Belknap politely declines this tempting offer (he's pretty convinced Holmes has other plans for him).
- Belknap sleeps in the hotel, and some pretty weird stuff happens to him in the middle of the night, including someone slipping a key into the door lock.
- Soon afterwards, he discovers that Holmes has forged his signature on a second check for $2,500. Yup, Holmes definitely didn't plan to take Belknap to the roof to show him the views.
- Soon after, Holmes has a kiln installed in the basement, a cellar with "the look of a mine, the smell of a surgeon's suite" (1.7.33).
- Brr. That's creepy.