protected static CINode findStartNode(Table table, byte[] startKey) throws IOException {
      Scan scan = new Scan();
      scan.withStartRow(startKey);
      scan.setBatch(1);
      scan.addColumn(FAMILY_NAME, COLUMN_PREV);

      long t1 = EnvironmentEdgeManager.currentTime();
      ResultScanner scanner = table.getScanner(scan);
      Result result = scanner.next();
      long t2 = EnvironmentEdgeManager.currentTime();
      scanner.close();

      if (result != null) {
        CINode node = getCINode(result, new CINode());
        System.out.printf("FSR %d %s\n", t2 - t1, Bytes.toStringBinary(node.key));
        return node;
      }

      System.out.println("FSR " + (t2 - t1));

      return null;
    }
A stand alone program that deletes a single node.
hbase-it/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/test/IntegrationTestBigLinkedList.java