Checking Out (Short Story 92)

Concerning the unanswered questions : I think the flood in the lobby of the hotel is the frozen lake Cocytus in the ninth Circle of Hell.

Just noticed this was the last story referenced in the title of a post on the list (2nd April). There was a post about an interview a few days later... then the news of Wolfe's death. Hope nobody is offended, just noticed the coincidence - a whimsical sort of connection that Wolfe might have used to draw the reader into a story about some other sort of connection. I haven't read the story so I don't know whether its about the usual colloquial sense of 'checking out'. 92 is also the last 'natural' element in the Periodic Table, in the sense that no elements heavier than Uranium occur in other than trace quantities as part of a decay cascade. (Once you start with coincidences, you can't stop.) - Gerry Quinn