@Override
  public V remove(final Object key) {
    // throws NullPointerException if key null
    final int hash = entryCreator.keyHashCode(key, compareValues);
    return segmentFor(hash).remove(key, hash, NO_OBJECT_TOKEN, null, null, null);
  }
Removes the key (and its corresponding value) from this map. This method does nothing if the
key is not in the map.

@param key the key that needs to be removed
@return the previous value associated with <tt>key</tt>, or <tt>null</tt> if there was no
        mapping for <tt>key</tt>
@throws NullPointerException if the specified key is null
geode-core/src/main/java/org/apache/geode/internal/util/concurrent/CustomEntryConcurrentHashMap.java