The corporate registry service center had high windows and plastic chairs bolted to the floor.
Daudi took a public-search number and asked a narrow question: who was Nova Crate?
The registry printout showed that the company had been incorporated two months earlier. Its service address matched one Kifaru Pack had used on older invoices. Its office number differed by only two digits. Daudi did not know one listed director, but the service contact was Leonard Mushi.
That did not prove ultimate ownership or wrongdoing. It proved a connection.
Amani appeared in the corridor carrying a box containing a replacement bearing.
“You followed me?” Daudi asked.
“I also have legitimate work.”
On a bench, Amani showed him a business card from a spare-parts supplier.
**NOVA CRATE LTD. — ASSET & FULFILLMENT SERVICES.**
The named manager was Kifaru’s former logistics manager, who had “resigned” three weeks earlier.
They visited the bearing supplier, Ms. Chausiku. She said the former logistics manager had recently instructed her to bill future spare parts for certain serial numbers to Nova. She had not copied his list, and Daudi told her not to try to recover it. He asked only whether she could write a short statement about the instruction and the card she had received.
She did.
Outside, Daudi and Amani created a simple evidence log: item, source, date, what it proved and what it did not prove.
The registry proved Nova existed and Leonard was a service contact. The business card showed a former Kifaru manager representing Nova. The customer email proved a payment-direction change. A maintenance quote Amani had received was addressed to Nova but carried the serial number of Kifaru’s main forklift.
“Serial number?” Daudi asked.
“Yes.”
They agreed to inspect the asset tags on Friday under the normal maintenance process. No night searches. No copied customer database. No passwords. No original logs removed from their departments.
Amani asked what happened if Daudi lost access.
“Then we keep only the records already preserved through legitimate work.”
“And if I get fired?”
“We still do not change the rule.”
They also set a deadline for themselves. Before the investor briefing, they would identify only whether Nova was already using Kifaru serial numbers in ordinary commercial paperwork. They would not try to prove ownership, insolvency or criminal intent in one afternoon.
Amani disliked the narrow target but accepted it.
“Why serial numbers?”
“Because a company name can be explained away as future planning. A serial number ties the paperwork to a physical machine that is still inside Kifaru.”
That was the first time their evidence plan connected registry identity, customer revenue and physical assets without needing access to Leonard’s private files.
Their six-year relationship had been routine until then: payroll officer counting overtime and maintenance foreman disputing missing hours. Now it became an alliance with boundaries.
Daudi made another rule. If he began saying “they are stealing” before the documents supported it, Amani should stop him. If Amani began wanting to lock the gate out of anger, Daudi would stop him.
They shook hands.
Miriam called. There would be an all-staff investor briefing at 17:00.
Before they left the service center, Daudi received an IT email: his treasury dashboard access would be reviewed after the briefing.
Amani did not let him call it routine.
At the briefing hall, a large slide was already projected:
**48 HOURS TO STRATEGIC INVESTMENT CLOSE.**
Below it:
**No unauthorized discussion of liquidity, payroll or asset restructuring.**
Daudi looked at the payroll calendar. If investor funds did not arrive by Friday evening, salaries would already be two days late.
More troubling, Nova was receiving payment instructions before the “deal” had even closed.
The countdown was not about to begin.
It was already running.