3yo says daycare provider hit him

I work from home and my son goes to a private home daycare one day a week. He's been going for 6 months or so and we've always been impressed with the lady who runs it. She has two daughters of her own and only 1-2 other daycare kids. They are very rarely there on the same day as my son. I picked him up a few days ago and she told me he had been misbehaving all day, not listening well, and he got into some sprinklers at the park after she told him not to. I remember being surprised that she seemed so annoyed with him as she's telling me this. He was in a crap mood for the rest of the day but I wasn't too surprised. We all have bad days. Well the next day he says out of nowhere to my husband, "X's mom is a monster. She's scary. She hit my butt."He does call us monsters if we're being harsh/disciplining him, but we've never spanked him and he's never lied about being hit. He seems genuinely scared to go back when we drive near their house.I've brought it up again couple times and his story stays the same. I don't want to talk to him too much about it because I feel like asking leading questions will cause him to give me the answers he thinks I want. When I asked him "has anybody ever hit your butt?" He says "yeah, X's mom hit my butt." I asked why, he says "she was mad at me." I ask "where did that happen, X's house?" He says "no, the playground."My intuition says it's legit. He's freaked out, which is completely out of character. Usually he's excited to play with X and a very confident kid.I texted her last night and asked if anything happened last time that I should know about, as he suddenly doesn't want to go back. She reiterated what she had said and suggested he was mad he got a timeout for not listening.It's important to note that I live in a very small town and will not be able to avoid this woman. I'm not very confrontational, but right now I want to choke her. Of course I'm not going to do anything like that.My questions: Do I tell her what he said? If so, I'm not sure how to approach it. I'm trying to keep in mind it may still be nothing. I know if I was falsely accused of hitting a child it would break my heart. I don't think I can ever send him back knowing SOMETHING happened.I was hit a lot as a kid and vowed to break the cycle. The whole thing just stinks. My poor little guy... via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2aPJiiQ