Thanks to every one who replied. I think that since I only need to know if a record is marked for deletion the simplest solution is (code is in a do loop)

DELETE NEXT 1 FOR pireq.creqno = lcReqNo IN pireq
llDeleted = DELETED('pireq')
IF NOT llDeleted
   llOk = .F.
   EXIT
ENDIF

Code that checks to see status of LLOK.

Please point out any problems with this approach.