Kathy Podrowski is a character in the Dexter Novels.
She is Jackie Forrest's personal assistant.
Description[]
Kathy is a “square plain-looking woman” in her mid-30s, with short brown hair She wears large, Elton John-style glasses, and usually a lightweight tropical sundress.
Personality[]
She is a busy, work-oriented individual who accidentally sees something for which she is murdered.
Summary[]
Dexter is working as a personal bodyguard for Jackie Forrest to protect her from Patrick Bergmann, a murderous stalker. While they’re in their hotel suite, Dexter notices that someone is trying to open the door. He immediately pulls his Glock from its holster and orders Jackie to lock herself in the bathroom with her phone. Jackie protests, saying, “I thinks it’s...” Before she can finish, Dexter yanks the door open and presses his gun against the right ear of a terrified woman. Papers, keys, a cell phone, and a cup of coffee fall to the floor. A pool of urine forms around the woman’s feet. Trembling, she begs Dexter not to kill her. Dexter backs off when Jackie introduces her assistant, Kathy. Still shaking, Kathy tells Dexter that she’s “pleased” to meet him. Thereafter, Kathy avoids Dexter whenever she can.
A few days later, Kathy is heard yelling at Renny, a comedian, as he’s holding her wrists. She struggles to get away, warning him that she will “tell everybody.” He urgently whispers something to her, but she yanks her arms away, slaps him, and states, “I told you last time.” Once Kathy is free, she rushes over to Jackie to inform her that Sylvia (wardrobe manager) can’t wait for her any longer, and will “do Robert first.”
One day, Kathy is heard slamming a door and she hurries away to her suite. As soon as Kathy is gone, Robert Chase, buttoning his shirt, and Astor appear. Jackie, Dexter, and a few others apparently don’t think this is odd.
Soon after, Dexter and Jackie wake up to the sound of sirens. Deborah, who is in the hotel lobby, calls Dexter to inform him that there’s a dead woman one floor up. The body was discovered by a room service waiter who saw blood coming from under the door, and used his passkey. The woman is ripped up and gutted, and one of her eyes is missing. When she’s identified by her driver’s license photo as Kathy, Jackie begins to shake and cry. She blames herself for Kathy’s death.
Dexter knows that Patrick didn’t kill Kathy because he’s at the bottom of the ocean. When Dexter asks Deborah if she thinks it’s the same killer, she angrily retorts, “How many of these freaks you think we got running around?”
Kathy’s murder puzzles Dexter because she was not blonde, not young, and (to him) not attractive. Also, she wasn’t dumped elsewhere, like Patrick’s victims. Dexter doesn’t really care, though, because Kathy had hated him and her death had nothing to do with him. He feels no need to give it a second thought.
After Deborah leaves the suite, Jackie worries that Patrick will come back. When she tells Dexter that she doesn’t want to be alone, he doesn’t hesitate to spend the night in her bed, and they make love for the first time.
Later, Detective Anderson asks Jackie to go through a box of Kathy’s personal effects, which includes a suitcase, purse, and laptop. However, she can’t deal with it and she asks Dexter if he will do it for her. He agrees and goes to Jackie’s dressing room, where he finds Detective Anderson sniffing one of her costumes. Anderson is mortified and it gives him another reason to hate Dexter.
Dexter begins his search through Kathy’s stuff. He sets the suitcase aside, doubting that he will find any clues in her socks and underwear. He picks up her purse and dumps out keys, a packet of tissues, lipstick, a small mirror, three pens, a handful of paper clips, two tampons in a plastic case, and a packet of gum. Kathy’s wallet holds several credit cards, her license, a few business cards, forty-three dollars in cash, and three paycheck stubs. A heap of useless junk, he thought, but he feels something is missing. He looks inside the computer case, but finds only a computer.
Finally, Dexter opens the suitcase. Just as he suspected, there is only clothing -- underwear, socks, a bathing suit, and a pair of sandals. He suddenly realizes what is missing -- Kathy’s phone. She was never without it. Dexter calls Vince Masuoka who confirms that it’s not in police custody. Dexter realizes that Kathy’s death must be connected to something on her phone.
Astor goes missing and Dexter has to leave Jackie for awhile in her on-set trailer. Jackie decides that, while he’s gone, she will look through Kathy’s stuff. Dexter, almost out of earshot, hears a trailer door slam and Jackie yell, “Robert!” and “Son of a bitch...” Dexter, thinking they are just running lines for the show, doesn’t go back.
When Dexter returns to Jackie’s trailer, he finds her brutally murdered. The police assume that she was killed by the same person who killed Kathy.
Jackie’s computer is missing and Dexter pieces together what happened. Since her Apple smartphone and Apple computer were synced, all of Jackie’s appointments, phone numbers, and contacts on her phone went to her computer. Jackie must have turned on the computer, and saw Kathy’s appointment.
Dexter remembers seeing Kathy enter the room where Robert and Astor were together, and then flying out. Robert likely begged Kathy to let him explain and arranged a time to visit her. He then killed Kathy and took her phone to hide the date of their meeting. Robert then killed Jackie for her computer which had the same info.
Notes[]
- Dexter briefly suspects that Renny killed Kathy but he has an alibi. He was in NYC at the time.
- When Astor went missing, she had run away to be with Robert Chase. Dexter found her with Robert, dressed in a negligee. She was only eleven years old.