The Reasons Behind MacQuarrie's Manipulations?

This is a few months late, but somehow I kept forgetting to discuss it. The Secret Six arc from issues 19-22, where Mr. MacQuarrie hires people to kidnap Cheshire and Catman's son, why did he drag Catman into it?

I understand having the child taken. He wants Cheshire to suffer, because she's responsible for the death of his wife and daughter. But he hires the Six to save his son, while having her son taken. Then they try and have Catman kill his teammates to extend his son's life. Catman refuses, tracks the three abductors down, and kills them before reaching MacQuarrie again, who had appeared to shoot himself fatally in the head, but it was apparently only a flesh wound. Then MacQuarrie tells Catman the child's been adopted by some other couple, and he admits Catman was supposed to be killed during the course of all this.

There's certain things that don't make sense. Why try and make Catman kill his teammates? Why bother to drag Catman or the Six into it at all? Is it guilt by association? MacQuarrie hates Cheshire, Thomas Blake had a child with her, so he needs to suffer, the Secret Six work with Blake, so they have to suffer as well? I was thinking this was a contingency plan, one MacQuarrie wouldn't implement if the Six saved his son from the cult, but he told the Six the cult left his boy to bake in a metal box, which indicates he already knew his son was dead when he hired them.

Maybe involving Catman was about how painful it is to have hopes dashed. By alerting Blake to what's happening, MacQuarrie provides Cheshire with hope her son will be returned. It's something she can hold onto, until, if things went as MacQuarrie planned, Blake was killed, which she'd have heard about somehow. As it turns out, Blake survived, but he ended helping destroy her hope, so it hurts her even worse. It still doesn't explain trying to make him kill his teammates, since that would have ended things before Cheshire could even find hope.

I wonder if MacQuarrie had learned of Blake's childhood, with the abusive, domineering father who Blake stabbed, if not killed. If he understood that's were Blake came from, then he may have been banking on it to drive Blake's decisions. That Thomas Blake, having experienced life with a "well-meaning" but ultimately evil parent, would agree that it's better to get a child away from that? Thomas' mother could never quite work up the nerve to do that, and she and Thomas both suffered for it. Is he giving Blake the opportunity to do what MacQuarrie would consider the just or heroic thing, because he knows Blake's mother didn't do the same for him*?

It's possible MacQuarrie was simply doing what he described in #19. He said he has the money to feed five nations, but spends it on vendettas instead. Contrary to what he tells Blake, maybe he knows he's not a hero, he's just a bitter man striking back at the person he blames. And if he can make others suffer as well, then so be it. He refuses to suffer alone, everyone should be in as much misery as him. He has the money to manipulate all parties involved, so he does. I don't think, though, that he did all this as he did because he could. Trying to make Blake kill his closest friends, then having him brutally slaughter three men, only to present him with the opportunity to rip Cheshire's heart out (metaphorically)? It feels too purposeful, but at the same time, it seems so complicated it would have been easy for things to go awry. Blake tries to kill his teammates and dies before he can ever give Cheshire hope of even revenge. Deadshot reacts to MacQuarrie drawing a gun and puts one between his eyes, killing him right then. What if Blake won't make the call, and still demands to know where his son is? Would MacQuarrie tell him, let Blake damn his son to a dangerous life**, or just laugh at him, unafraid of anything Blake could do to him?

* While we're at it, I think breaking Cheshire by making her believe both her kids are dead may not have been smart. Now lots more people are going to die because MacQuarrie had to have revenge. Is that just, their families die because his did as well?

** Though with the way supervillains have been destroying cities lately, living with one might be safer. They'd be more likely to know if Prometheus is about to blow up a city than an average person.