A few days earlier when Lory and Fredhardt met Victor Kross at the same time Jay went to visit James Aldwin, he was Harland's Foreign Minister or to be exact, the Former Foreign Minister. James Aldwin was suspected of working together with The Ember City mayor to collude with the outsider. They are responsible for allowing Underground Guild shadows to enter Harlands not only that because of them the Underground Guild members managed to enter and work in Harland.
Such a crime cannot go unpunished so Jay comes with the King's Men and some of Noxcra's agents to arrest James Aldwin with direct orders from the King's Regent. But who would have thought that despite being closely watched, James Aldwin managed to escape through a secret passageway within his Manor and cruelly abandoned his wife and two daughters?