every morning the sun rises over the mountains east of albuquerque and begins baking one of the most celebrated stretches of asphalt in the united states. historic route 66, the highway famous for carrying dust bowl refugees and beat generation oddballs west to california. the mother roads glory days are behind her now. the city's down scale drug and prostitution trade flourishes. cops call this section of central avenue the war zone. the women who work its shadows prostitutes. but ever since her early days in uniformed patrol, ida lopez has called them her girls. >> i got to know a lot of them. we could chase them out, but for me there was always a story to them. >> ida says the story she heard back then were heart breaking