THE STORY of a psychic who sensed a presence on the stairway of their new home didn't faze Rona and Jeff Costello when they bought an old Victorian house in Fredericksburg in 1989.

Sure, it was interesting to hear about the woman who simply arrived one evening, drawn by a supposedly powerful vibration emanating from the house on Charles Street downtown.

Said Jeff Costello: "As the story went, the psychic walked all through the house but stopped on the third step from the top of the stairway. She felt a strong presence there."

Costello said he and his wife thanked the sellers, Peggy and Kent McGlone, but didn't think much about it after that.

At least not until recently, when a cryptic, slightly spooky letter was found under layers of old carpet and 1930s padding peeled off the stairway during a renovation of the front hallway.

It seemed a little stranger when the Costellos realized that the wrinkled, time-yellowed note was not found at the bottom of the stairway.

Nor halfway up.

No, it was found in the very spot where the psychic had stopped--on the third step from the top.

The small, typed note was dated Jan 20, 1932, and said: "To anyone. Please help me. I am near you."

It was signed simply, "Liza Wheat."

After that came a series of numbers, one to 17, which just happens to match the number of steps in the stairway. By the numbers, the notation: "P.S. # 3."

Costello said he noticed something different about the third step after finding the note.

It's the only one, of all 17, where the kickboard directly above it is full of dents and depressions.

Costello, a plumber and handyman who is slowly and lovingly renovating the house, said his kids are fascinated by the note and want him to pull out the ceiling in a closet below the stairs to see what might be underneath.

"Who knows?" he said. "It could be bones, money, whatever."

The Costellos have enjoyed sharing the tale. They said that people seem to enjoy it as a ghost story, especially just before Halloween.